Lost city: forgotten plans for an alternative Auckland

Abstract

Sixty years ago an innovative state plan was produced for Auckland. Dated 1946, this plan featured nested circular railway loops in the central isthmus and a system of traffic calming based on greenways linking culs-de-sac to pedestrianised town centres. Closely similar ideas were to briefly recur in the 1970s. These ideas represent a permanent, somewhat underground, vision of an alternative Auckland. This vision has been overshadowed by a more familiar orthodoxy of a city too sprawling to plan. It is suggested that the latter has developed by way of a reaction to past planning activism by the New Zealand state. Exemplified by the 1946 plan, this state planning was based on a paradigm of public capture of land value gains in defined railway corridors. This alternative vision is profoundly relevant to Auckland’s physical setting, more so than the continuing over-accommodation of the automobile. As population increases this may tip the balance in favour of Auckland’s alternative vision. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E215472.

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