Three projects recognised at 2015 NZ Planning Institute Awards

Three very diverse projects we have been involved in received accolades at the 2015 New Zealand Planning Institute Best Practice Awards.

The annual awards recognise excellence and best practice in planning. We congratulate our clients and project team colleagues, with whom we worked on the following successful projects.

The Chorus Mana Whenua Fibred project, which received the Best Practice Award for Excellence in Consultation and Participation Processes, involved the deployment of Chorus’ ultrafast broadband fibre network in Auckland. Initially our landscape planners were involved in this project developing guidelines for overhead installation of the broadband network. Through this relationship, our cultural advisory team was engaged to support Chorus, Beca and Incite to develop a best practice approach to Iwi engagement in the consenting process. Once developed, our Te Hihiri team has continued to provide strategic and technical advice to Chorus on matters affecting Māori with regards to the network construction.

The Best Practice Award for Excellence in Integrated Planning went to the Auckland Harbour Bridge Alliance for the development of the Auckland Harbour Bridge Adaptive Framework. Dr Sharon De Luca, Boffa Miskell principal and ecologist, brought her marine ecology and ecotoxicology expertise to the multi-disciplinary team of experts that developed a more flexible consenting framework for the Alliance, to help manage the environmental impacts of maintenance on the Auckland harbour bridge. The adaptive framework is estimated to provide significant cost savings over the next decade through allowing and encouraging maintenance operators to adopt more innovative methods in focusing on environmental performance outcomes.

The Ōrākei Kāinga Tuatahi Project received a Commendation for District/Regional Planning. This 30-house village, located on ancestral land in Ōrākei, is the first housing intensification project to come out of the Ōrākei Papākainga Masterplan. Our landscape architects and urban designers completed the master plan for Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Trust in 2013. We then worked with the Trust, Steven Lawson Architects, Barker & Associates planners and the project engineers, R20 Consulting and Sullivan Hall, to develop a landscape concept that incorporates the cultural values of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei into a contemporary design. Construction began mid-2014 and is programmed for completion by early 2016.