Latest news with #neo-Georgian
NZ Herald
16-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Chateau Tongariro restoration: $5m provision by former lessee provides glimmer of hope
The statement also noted that the company no longer expects any payment for the Chateau. While the Crown owns the land on which the Chateau sits, Kah bought the Chateau itself and many of its ancillary buildings. The seeming progress in resolving the obligations of the Chateau's last lessee may have given DoC confidence to press ahead with a small step toward seeking a new tenant. Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said he is still receiving advice on the long-term options for the Chateau. Photo / Mark Mitchell In March, the department's consultants interviewed seven parties with preliminary interest in operating the Chateau. The interviews completed an expression of interest (EOI) process that the Department began last year but abruptly suspended in September, at ministers' request. The possibility of a payment by Kah, and the indication that the Crown or a new lessee will owe no consideration for the buildings, provides a glimmer of hope for the Chateau's future, which has otherwise been cast in doubt by the estimated size of both the repair bill and the earthquake strengthening that it requires. The Treasury indicates that the cost could run higher than $100m. The Cabinet is now set to consider 'next steps' for the Chateau. Considerations are expected to include, leasing the building to a new operator (and Government footing a portion of the bill), and decommissioning the building – boarding it up, shutting off core building systems and dropping insurance to save ongoing maintenance costs currently running at roughly $2m per year. The Government's upcoming Budget is expected to keep new spending on a tight rein. Mike Tully, deputy director-general organisation at DoC, said 'significant investment' is needed to strengthen and restore the Chateau, 'however no decision has been made on how that work might be funded'. The main building is considered 'earthquake-prone' and it fails to meet safety standards; it requires strengthening, though the rules technically allow it to operate as it is for decades. A spokesman for the Minister of Conservation, Tama Potaka, said the minister is still receiving advice to inform a decision on long-term options for the site. Ministers steering the Chateau decision-making are: Potaka, Nicola Willis, Finance Minister, Shane Jones, Regional Development Minister, Paul Goldsmith, Treaty Negotiations Minister and Matt Doocey, Tourism Minister. The imposing neo-Georgian building is a category one historic place, listed by Heritage NZ, and its fate is being watched closely by the New Zealand public. The Chateau is considered a lynch-pin for local tourism and its continued closure and deterioration is likely a drag on the local skifields, Whakapapa and Tūroa, which recently passed to new operators after a protracted period of administration and a direct investment of taxpayer funds that topped $50m. However, funding per se isn't the only impediment to resolving the site's future. The Government has tens of millions of dollars into the Whakapapa ski field and gondola adjacent to the derelict Chateau. Photo / Mt Ruapehu Taranaki-area iwi are expected to begin 'cultural redress' negotiations soon, related to the Tongariro National Park, and some have indicated to DoC that, before that process unfolds, they would not support the issuance of a long-term lease for the Chateau. A long-term lease, however, is almost undoubtedly a prerequisite for any prospective investor to sink meaningful sums of money into restoring and strengthening the building. Whakapapa Holdings In January, Tom Elworthy, director and indirect shareholder of Whakapapa Holdings, told the Herald that his company is interested in reviving the Chateau. He said the property requires an upfront investment of 'many millions of dollars' but that the cost was likely to be substantially less than $100m. Elworthy said his company would be willing to make the investment 'on the right terms' – he suggested a peppercorn rent across a 30-year lease. Whakapapa Holdings recently took over the operation of Whakapapa ski field with the help of a $5m government loan. This week, Elworthy confirmed that Whakapapa was among the parties interviewed in the March EOI process; he said the company signed a non-disclosure agreement and that he could not discuss details of the process. The EOI appears to have been very informal. Tully confirmed that no written information was provided to the participants and DoC did not receive any written indications or information from any participants. Kah's latest Annual Report Kah's annual report for 2023, recently released, noted that a $4.9m provision for Chateau restoration costs was: 'based on the estimates of restoration costs and current claims from the lessor to satisfy lease conditions'. 'These amounts are yet to be settled with or paid to the lessor, are still subject to ongoing negotiation and there remains significant estimation uncertainty as to the final settlement or whether further obligations exist,' the statement said. Kah bought the Chateau and many of its ancillary buildings from the government-owned Tourist Hotel Corporation in 1991. The 1991 contract stipulates that any subsequent lessee of the site will owe Kah for the buildings' value (to be determined by appointed valuers), and, in addition, that the buildings must be returned in good repair and condition, otherwise the value owed to Kah should be diminished commensurate with any deficiency. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
NZ Herald
29-04-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Whanganui council secures demolition consent for former St George's School building
Although the resource consent had been granted, 'no decision has been made on the site's future'. For most consents related to demolition, the holder has five years to implement them. The former school at 125 Grey St was built in 1927. St George's moved to the Whanganui Collegiate campus in 2011 after a decline in student numbers. According to the council's heritage inventory, the 'substantial two-storey school' was designed in the neo-Georgian style. 'The base of the building is brick with the upper floor in rough cast render. 'Between the two north-facing wings is a more modern single-storey building forming an entry to the school facing Grey St.' O'Hagan said the council's assessment and resource consent did not apply to the newer administration building and the early childhood centre (Whanganui Y-Kids Early Learning Centre) at the southern corner of the site. The buildings at Grey St were bought from the YMCA by Whanganui District Holdings - the council's financial arm - in 2019 in a joint partnership with Te Ngakinga o Whanganui, as a location for classroom aviation training through the New Zealand International Pilot Academy (NZICPA). In 2019, Holdings did not reveal how much the buildings were bought for because of commercial sensitivity, and the council did not provide a figure when asked this week. NZICPA used some of the buildings from the second half of 2019 until June 2021. Ownership of the site has since transferred from Whanganui District Holdings to the council, with Holdings currently in the process of disestablishment. Former Holdings board chairwoman Annette Main said the joint partnership with Te Ngakinga o Whanganui ended in 2020, after the outbreak of Covid-19. Advertise with NZME. 'Things came to a sudden halt because the world was closed down and there was no way to get the students we relied upon to get a return on that investment at St George's,' she said. 'A major opportunity to develop the flight school was lost.' A council spokesperson said the only occupied building included in the resource consent for demolition was a two-storey classroom block built in 1969, which was currently used by the YMCA. Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe said his father and sister attended the school, and his father served as head boy. Many people had connections to St George's but the buildings had been mostly vacant for several years 'and we need to do something', he said. 'There comes a point where we have to consider all options. 'We are looking at ways to better utilise our assets as far as maximising a return.' Tripe said it remained a 'desirable site' because of its location. 'Whanganui is doing its best to retain heritage where we can, and it's a real point of difference for us but we need to be pragmatic about what this site holds for the future.' St George's School declined to comment on the council's resource consent.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Update in plans to replace Bexley derelict hospital with residential development
More homes have been added in updated plans to replace a derelict hospital in Bexley with a large residential development. Several new planning documents have been added to a planning application submitted by Bexley Council to redevelop the former Bexley Maternity Hospital building on Erith Road and build several new buildings on the site. The plans were first revealed in January 2024 with the initial proposal aiming to deliver 117 homes, made up of 28 one-bedroom apartments, 74 two-bedroom apartments, seven three-bedroom apartments and eight three-bedroom houses. 17 of these units would be affordable and 12 of them would be wheelchair accessible. The number of proposed homes has now increased to 121, with 21 one-bedroom apartments, 60 two-bedroom apartments, 32 three-bedroom apartments and eight three-bedroom houses making up the total. 18 of these units would be affordable and 13 would be wheelchair accessible. This revised unit mix comes in response to targets set out in the Bexley Local Plan. The apartments would be contained within the refurbished hospital building as well as three new six-storey tower blocks to the south. The eight two-storey terraced houses would be located in a row to the west of the hospital as per the original plans. Key design changes in the updated plans include increasing the height of one block from five to six storeys, re-positioning another block to retain a prominent cedar tree to the south west of the site and removing vehicular access from the rear of the former hospital building in order to 'maximise soft landscape' adjacent to the ancient woodland of Bursted Wood to the north. The neo-Georgian style hospital building with 'subtle Art Deco influences' dates back to 1937 and cost £31,000 to build, according to documents from heritage consultants Fuller Long. The hospital has reportedly been closed since 1978, and has served more recently as offices for the Bexley Clinical Commissioning Group. The façade of the hospital building would be retained and restored as part of the development, with the derelict medical facility making way for a mix of 12 different flats. The GP surgery on the site is intended to remain under the plans, with the updated planning documents outlining how land will be retained in order to allow for the potential extension of the surgery in the future. The practice opened in 1986 and sits to the east of the former maternity building. In future, Bexley Council hopes to deliver the full 180 homes on the site it has outlined within the Bexley Local Plan. A building known as 'North House' to the south east of the site is currently in use as emergency temporary accommodation for the homeless. The land on which North House lies is currently under different ownership. Bexley planners hope to purchase this land in the future, demolish the current structure and build a three storey block and five storey block that would contain the remaining 49 homes.
The Guardian
21-04-2025
- General
- The Guardian
‘Ours was inspired by the Empire State Building!' The chaotic brilliance of the UK's biggest self-build town
What would the world look like if Kevin McCloud had his way? What if each of us had the chance to build our very own Grand Design, letting our streets be lined with personal visions, liberated from the identikit brick boxes offered by the usual big housebuilders? A glimpse of this world exists, sort of, on the outskirts of Bicester in Oxfordshire, where the country's biggest self-build experiment has been under way for the last 10 years. Graven Hill is a place where rooftops tilt, zigzag and bulge, where windows come in circles, squares and triangles, or poke out from unexpected places. There are balconies fashioned from glass, steel and rustic timber clinging to facades of stone, brick, wood and render, along with every type of fibre-cement board available. Wandering the freshly tarmaced streets feels like walking through a building supplies catalogue. Panels of fake wood are proudly fixed next to rusted cor-ten steel and bits of slate, as if residents were fed fizzy drinks and let loose in a cladding warehouse. There are low-slung bungalows and houses that want to be towers. Beachy timber chalets sit alongside neo-Georgian brick townhouses while puffed-up, porticoed piles stand next to angular metallic concoctions. There's even a stripy blue house with a gigantic giraffe parked outside. Why choose one style when you can have them all? 'It took us a long time to find an architect who didn't laugh when we said we wanted turrets,' says Frevisse Dearsley-Hitchcock. Her and her husband Giles's home, designed by the accommodating local practice LAPD, is one of the most striking of the lot. It stands as a bright blue New England-style house with (fibre-cement) clapboard walls flanked by two octagonal turrets, one each for their children. They are crowned with bright teal cupolas topped with weathervanes ('Tabatha chose a unicorn; Barnaby wanted a penguin reading a book'), while the eaves are punctuated by porthole windows and cutout stars. 'We've heard local kids say that a Disney princess lives here,' says Frevisse. 'I think I disappointed them one day when I came out in my hi-vis and boots.' Their dream princess castle has been a long time coming. The couple acquired the plot in 2018 for £260,000, drawn to the fact that sites at Graven Hill come with outline planning permission and, for this particular plot, 'no limits on what we could do'. There were limits, however, on what their builders were capable of. Having lived in the US for years, the couple wanted features such as a basement, a laundry chute and pocket doors that slide back into the walls, none of which proved easy to realise. 'The concrete basement was still wonky when we had to sign it off,' says Frevisse. 'When the timber framer arrived, he didn't know where to begin. We'd already spent £400,000 in the ground before we even began the house.' Seven years later, it's still not finished, but they hope to move in by the end of the year – at a total cost of double what they planned. 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing,' says Giles. You can picture Kevin McCloud's gleefully furrowed brow. Graven Hill may sound like a Channel 4-funded reality experiment, but this radical neighbourhood is actually the brave venture of Cherwell district council. Inspired by the famous self-built suburb of Almere in the Netherlands, the local authority bought the 188 hectare site from the MoD in 2014 and set up a council-owned development company to manage the process. Glenn Howells Architects drew up a master plan featuring 11 different character areas, ranging from 'tree-lined boulevards' to 'urban lanes', with detailed 'plot passports' prescribing building heights and material palettes. More or less freedom would be granted depending on the character area, in an attempt to avoid total anarchy – although, in reality, these different zones are indiscernible in the resulting hodgepodge. To get things going, the first plots were released to 10 'pioneer' residents at a knockdown price of £100,000 each, with the agreement that their trials and tribulations would be broadcast in a special series of Grand Designs: The Streets. 'The whole thing just sounded amazing,' says Lynn Pratt, one of the pioneer residents, who moved here from a rural cottage in Northamptonshire, attracted to the idea of being part of a neighbourly community with nearby amenities and a bus stop. Her 'Pangolin' house, designed by local architect Adrian James, features scaly tiles that wrap around a big oast house-inspired roof. 'It was billed as 'a development like no other',' Pratt recalls, 'with all the houses to be high-spec, low-energy and forward-thinking, with no big developers allowed. They said they wanted a wide demographic, with a variety of ages and incomes, so it wasn't just fancy dream homes. I built my whole house for about £350,000, including the land.' In Pratt and her neighbours' eyes, the built reality has now strayed from that original vision. The 2,000 homes were intended to be a mix of self-build and 'custom build', where owners could personalise elements, but the latter have often veered towards the usual cookie-cutter housebuilder fare. There are now plenty of bog standard brick houses, with some grey cladding stuck on to give a half-hearted 'custom' air. 'I don't know if it was Brexit or Covid,' says Pratt, 'but suddenly things changed. I know costs have gone up, but the vision now feels very different. There's very little self-build now – they've priced most people out.' She is also still waiting for the grocery shop and bus stop to arrive, while the pioneer homes remain cut off, stranded from the rest of the development across a field. Another major bone of contention has been the affordable housing. Graven Hill is required to provide 30% such homes, but many feel they have been designed in a way that has created an 'us and them' division between self-builders and renters. The housing association properties stand as incongruous rows of long brick terraces, as if airlifted here from a 1980s council estate. 'It's the weakest part of the whole development,' says John McCormack, a retired architect and fellow pioneer resident, who used to work in housing. 'All of the different tenures were supposed to be integrated, but it's ended up feeling like a series of ghettoes. Good design doesn't have to cost more, but the design quality of the affordable housing is almost zero.' Residents of some of the shared ownership homes have complained of black mould and freezing rooms, arguing that their properties don't live up to their eco claims (Graven Hill says tests carried out met environmental performance standards). There have also been grumblings about the lack of promised amenities. Despite 600 homes now being occupied, there is still no mini supermarket or community centre, and the planned pub looks unlikely to materialise. 'We have faced significant challenges,' says Adrian Unitt, managing director of the Graven Hill Village Development Company. 'You can build a shop unit, but getting someone to lease it is a different story.' He is standing in the sales suite of what is known as the 'village centre', which turns out to be an apartment block clad in the trademark busy variety of materials, with a coffee shop, wine bar and dentist on the ground floor. Across the road stands a primary school designed by Architype architects, crowned with clunky rooftop railings that make it look like the scaffolding has been left up. A site nearby, formerly earmarked for a health centre, will now become a care home, after the GP provider pulled out, while residents are still awaiting a community centre where they can hold parties and events. What does Unitt make of the criticisms that Graven Hill has drifted from its original vision? 'It's a very difficult model to make stack up,' he says. 'If I'm selling the land, with foundations and services, I'm getting about a third of the income that a usual developer would get. But I'm still delivering all the roads, the amenities, and the Section 106 affordable housing obligations.' It's also very slow. If it stuck to the self-build route, the company has said, the development wouldn't be completed until 2050. Compounding the issue, says Unitt, is ongoing damage caused by the fact that the neighbourhood is a permanent building site, with plot owners each building to their own schedules. The council asked for the infrastructure and amenities to be built first, but Unitt estimates the company has spent more than £2m rectifying kerbs, green space and play areas that have been damaged by construction crews, and 'trashed by people parking all over the place'. Parking is one of the things, along with where to keep the bins, that it is hoped will be improved in the next phase of the masterplan, currently being reworked by consultants Lambert Smith Hampton, after an outcry from residents over claims of increased density and lack of green space. Unitt says there will be 'more rigidity' in the design code, after feedback from the council, but residents fear a slide towards business-as-usual after sites that were once allocated for self-builders are now being built by the developer, due to apparent lack of demand. Looking at the plans, there is no indication of how many self-build plots there will be in the next phase. By any standards, Graven Hill is a chaotic jumble. Homes are scattered with abandon, designed with little concern for making a coherent place, or how they meet the street, with stretches of wall, fence, hedge and tarmac pasted at will, and parking all over the place. But it has its curious charms. It is a very English vision of individual ambition. Of people's determination to build their own little castles, despite the expense and trauma of it all. And of how some people, given freedom, will actually opt to build something quite conventional. 'To be honest, I don't know if I would recommend self-build,' says Frevisse Dearsley-Hitchcock. 'Other people have had a smoother ride than us, but you've got to be in it for the long haul.' Still, they've had plenty of fun along the way. Most recently, Giles has been busy fitting LED striplights to their blue house's gables. 'We were inspired by the Empire State Building in New York,' he says. 'It's lit up with different colours every night!'
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The U.S. has a political violence problem. Can we solve it before it's too late?
The executive residence in Uptown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, sits hard against the east bank of the Susquehanna River. On the other side of Front Street, hundreds of walkers, runners and tourists pass the neo-Georgian mansion, built in 1968, every single day. It's a beautiful and stately building. It's hosted art exhibits, Easter egg hunts, Christmas parties and often very tense political negotiations. But as much as it's a ceremonial building, it's also someone's house. Pennsylvania's governors stay there when they're not at their own homes elsewhere in the Keystone State. Republican Gov. Tom Ridge used to fly in from Erie. Republican Gov. Tom Corbett stayed there when he wasn't at his home in suburban Pittsburgh. Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell stayed there when he wasn't back home in Philadelphia. So did Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who used to commute in from nearby York County. It's as much a part of the capital city's landscape as the state Capitol building, which sits on a hill around a mile or so south in downtown Harrisburg. And sometime in the early hours of Sunday morning, a local resident scaled the fence, eluded police, and broke into the three-story, 29,000-square-foot home, set off homemade incendiary devices and fled. Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, his family and friends were asleep when State Police security roused them at 2 a.m. and evacuated them as the fire raged. They had celebrated the Jewish holiday of Passover at the residence on Saturday night. No one was hurt. And police have arrested the person believed to be responsible for this act of political violence. Shapiro and his family live in suburban Montgomery County, about 100 miles from the capital city. The person charged with the crime told police when he surrendered that he planned to beat Shapiro with a small sledgehammer if he found him, according to court documents released Monday. He also 'harbored hatred' toward Shapiro, according to CBS News in Philadelphia. And as I thought about all the time I had spent in that building, covering events for Republicans and Democrats alike, I could only think of one thing: What if the next assassination attempt is successful? It's not academic. There's no doubt that the U.S. has a political violence problem. Sooner or later, someone is going to get killed. And it is a bipartisan plague. Consider just the recent record. There were two attempts on President Donald Trump's life on the campaign trail in 2024. Someone tried to kill the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Authorities foiled a kidnapping plot aimed at Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., survived a grim attempt on her life. And U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., was seriously wounded in 2017. There is understandably widespread public concern about this problem. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents to an October 2024 poll by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said they were concerned about political violence. More worryingly, there is no consensus on how to solve it. And some Americans — 1 in 5 respondents to an April 2024 PBS/Marist College poll — think violence may solve the nation's political divisions. We already know the nation has an antisemitism problem. Throw in the toxic rage of political violence, and the challenge multiplies exponentially. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Shapiro said he would not be intimidated by efforts to try to stop him from doing his job or exercising his faith. 'When we were in the state dining room last night, we told the story of Passover' and the exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt to freedom, Shapiro said, according to The Associated Press. 'I refuse to be trapped by the bondage that someone attempts to put on me by attacking us as they did here last night. I refuse to let anyone who had evil intentions like that stop me from doing the work that I love.' And because we seem to need yet another reminder about our national malaise, Shapiro had it for us. 'We don't know the person's specific motive yet,' Shapiro said during a news conference on Sunday before the arrest. 'But we do know a few truths. First: This type of violence is not OK. This kind of violence is becoming far too common in our society. And I don't give a damn if it's coming from one particular side or the other, directed at one particular party or another or one particular person or another. It is not OK, and it has to stop. We have to be better than this.' As the political commentator Chris Cillizza pointed out on Monday morning, there were more than a few of us who celebrated when Luigi Mangione allegedly gunned down a health care executive on the streets of midtown Manhattan. And the numbers show that some of us think that taking up arms, either against our elected officials, or each other, to solve our political problems is more than ok. We can say, 'Well, that's not who we are.' But it is — time and again, it is exactly who we are. Just like Cillizza, and every great mind thinking about this, I have no idea how to stop this mania that's overtaken us. But it has to stop. Because next time, we may not be so lucky. Mass. Gov. Healey has a GOP challenger. 3 big questions we're asking | Bay State Briefing That light at the end of Red Line's tunnel? It's another shuttle bus | John L. Micek In Mass., nationwide, the meter is running for the resistance. What's next? | John L. Micek
