View shaft

Enthusiastically adopted by city planners, the viewshafts have survived a quarter-century of growth. Plenty of developers have cursed Turner’s viewshafts but few have challenged them.

My fundamental concern is that we don’t make essentially irreversible decisions to develop the waterfront in ways which we will not be happy with in 10 to 30 years’ time. I want to preserve viewshafts of the harbour, minimise the loss of public space to private ventures, and not have too many buildings cluttering the unique and wonderful harbour edge.

Older layers and traces of history in the city are covered or removed or being transformed beyond recognition, viewshafts are being disturbed or eliminated.

I ponder the Christchurch Beautifying Association planting thousands of native plants along here from 1897. The meanders provide myriad spaces in our city. The wonder of the grid design, enabling the viewshafts to mountains and Port Hills; the grid allowing a sense of orientation across the convolutions of the Otakaro-Avon River.