SkyscraperCity Forum banner

North Shore City | The Sentinel | Complete

52K views 451 replies 55 participants last post by  The CBD 
#1 · (Edited)
Just went outside to get today's second local paper and this was on the cover:

EDIT Images Removed

From North Shore Times Advertiser, Friday 21st November 2003


This will be Takapuna's 4th Skyscraper!
 
#4 ·
re

Takapuna's a beach suburb over on the north shore. If you carry on along the motorway off the harbour bridge you're there in about 5 minutes. I'll see if I can get an aerial pic. It seems a shame to put towers near such a beautiful beach in a nice area like Taka - to me they should stay in the CBD, but there are already 3 towers there so I wont complain too much. One day it might have its own skyline but I hope not - I'm in two minds about it really.
 
#6 · (Edited)
re

I've whipped you up this quick map. It only really shows a little bit of the takapuna area. The beach extends all the way along, and curls to a stop right next to the long restaurant/bar district in central Takapuna (milford beach carries on up the coast, then other beaches). Between takapuna and milford (not shown on the map) there is a very deep lake (lake pupuke). Nobody has ever recorded the depth - it's a volcanic cone.

EDIT Images Removed
 
#7 ·
Cool, thanks guys. Man I gotta get 'edumacated' about the geography of Auckland- that map looks intruiging !

29 stories sounds around 90- 110m in height so I'm assuming that there's a pretty generous height limit over Taka way - if there's one at all. Could be a mini North Sydney or St Leonards in the making? ;)
 
#8 · (Edited)
re

There are already 3 skyscrapers in Takapuna, two of them office buildings, and one (the tallest and most recent) a hotel/apartment building.

EDIT Images Removed

There is a live interactive streaming video web cam on the roof of that skyscraper on the left in that pic (Spencer on Byron). To view it, go here: http://www.northshorecity.govt.nz/about_the_city/webcam/default.htm

The good thing about the North Shore is that it's full of hills. Whole suburbs are built on the side of hills and valleys, facing Rangitoto and the city, so there are good views for alot of homes. Also there are alot of native forests and parks. Most of the North Shore is a peaceful and quiet area - there are good shopping, entertainment and sport centres, and some very good schools. Also some of the highest real-estate in the country. A huge mansion on the cliff in Belmont sold for $10million. Further up the Shore away from the CBD is Albany which a few years ago was all farm land. Now there is North Harbour Stadium a huge mall planned, schools, police stations etc.

Here's a map that shows almost the entire Auckland metro region - the red square shows the area contained in the map I posted above:

EDIT Images Removed

Other areas of Auckland that contain skyscrapers (other than the CBD) that I know of are:

Takapuna
Milford
Ponsonby
Bayswater
Remuera
Manukau
 
#9 ·
29 stories. That would make it similar in hight to the BNZ tower.
Not bad at all. I quite like developments away from the CBD. I find aussie cities are way too focussed on just the CBD. Look at Melbourne outside the CBD....next to nothing. Nice to see Takapuna maturing.
 
#11 ·
Hey, theres an article about it in the herald today. It's going to be 30, not 29, and called The Sentinel, not the Centennial.

Apartment tower plan in Takapuna

22.11.2003
By ANNE GIBSON
Rick Martin's Cornerstone Group wants to build a 30-level apartment tower on a Takapuna block and hopes to sell half the units by January.

Some locals are unhappy about the plan. The head of a local business association fears Takapuna could become a dormitory suburb, robbed of its prime commercial land.

Martin, unveiling his plans yesterday, said he would apply next month to the North Shore City Council for resource consent to build the 120-unit block to be called The Sentinel.

Martin is finishing The Nautilus block, a 12-storey 152-unit apartment building dominating Orewa's skyline. Residents will move in in January.

Martin, who has sold 560 North Shore units for a total of $207 million in the past 18 months, said he had a database with 11,000 people who had contacted him about apartments.

"Our target is to have this sold by the end of April," he said of The Sentinel, which will be on show at a display suite at 495 Lake Rd. The tower is to be built on the Takapuna Village site between Huron St and Northcroft St.

Takapuna Beach Business Association general manager Lindsay Waugh said her group was opposed to any developments which resulted in commercial land being used for apartments.

"Residential is taking us over and we're at risk of becoming a dormitory city," she said. "If an apartment block with 100 residents was an office block, it could have 1000 workers in it and that makes an enormous difference to the viability and future of Takapuna."

Waugh praised the 23-level Spencer on Byron, which opened in late 2001, saying its conferences and functions were an enormous boost to the suburb.

A Takapuna Village retailer said he had a five-year lease which had expired and he expected to move because the village was so rundown.

"It's hardly good use of the land. Most of the second level is vacant and there are broken windows here," he said.

But John Algie of the business association and Bayleys Real Estate approved of the plans, saying his agency was involved in the deal for Martin to buy the site about a month ago from a company owned by the Ng family.

"You're bringing in about 300 people into Takapuna who will shop, go to restaurants and to movies, which is good for business."
 
#15 · (Edited)
re

It's a good location because it's very near those two in the picture I showed: Spencer and AIA, so it'll form a little triangle of scrapers. Although even then, Taka will only have 4 skyscrapers. It's also very close to a shopping centre, motorway, main shopping/restaurant & bar streets, beach, movie theatre. It's just a great location.

I just remembered we drove through Taka a couple of weeks ago and I was snapping random pics from the car, out of boredom. Here's a pic of one of the main streets, parrallel to the beach:

EDIT Images Removed
 
#16 ·
re

cool, 29 storey apartments sounds about 85-90m. Are any of takapuna scrapers on ss.com?

Yeah the Spencer on Byron is:
http://www.emporis.info/en/wm/bu/?id=138837

LOL I just noticed it says "Street: Takapuna" hahaha. Shouldn't it be "Byron Ave", hence the name. Also the "City" should be "North Shore City".

After exams have finished I might go into Taka and get some proper pics of the whole area for you to see.
 
#17 ·
Re: re

atkinson1 said:
Hahaha. The North Shore Times Advertiser sure cocked that up.

Here's an article from the Herald with render:



It's not bad for a design - better than the Spencer in my opinion. I hope it looks as good or better when finished.
That's actually a pretty sweet looking building. It looks about 110m.

What are the chances of it getting built? I know the Orewa tower was similar in size and i think that has been cancelled.
 
#20 ·
ive added this to aucklands section on ss.com. since its just a suburb its roped in with Auckland Metro. Whats takapuna post code?
Ive worked it out to be 100m high (30x 3m floors) + 15m spire =total-115m. Ill leave this as height until i get official height. Will this be the tallest bldg outside of Aucklands CBD?.
cheers
 
#22 ·
Re: re

atkinson1 said:
Yeah this will be the tallest outside the CBD. North Shore City is officially a city, but you can leave it under Auckland since there are only 3 skyscrapers in Taka. I think the postcode is 1309 but I could be wrong.
thanks.:)
 
#24 ·
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top