A MULTI-STAGE MASTERPIECE IN AUCKLAND

Barry Curtis Park is a vast, multi-user facility, owned by New Zealand’s City of Auckland. The first stage was completed in 2018, more than 10 years after the project had commenced due to impacts of the global financial crisis in 2008. Barry Curtis Park is the largest urban park to be developed in Auckland in the past 100 years, and once completed (expected in 2022) it will be larger than Auckland Domain. It is located around 25 kilometres south-east of Auckland city and incorporates multiple uses such as sports and recreation, while accommodating protected wetland areas for birdlife and native fauna to flourish. WE-EF sales partner MHL, based in Auckland, was consulted on the project to provide effective lighting solutions for many different zones within the project area.

“Barry Curtis Park is at Flat Bush, a very central area where lots of people visit a large shopping centre nearby,” according to Jayden Cocker, consultant at MHL. “WE-EF products were used in the public spaces and walking paths around and through the park. The initial master plan for the project was completed more than 12 years ago,” he explained, “and they went ahead with part of the plan, but not all of it. The project really kicked off 10 years later.”

The initial work had seen the erection of walls with cut-outs already made for recessed lighting; overall, WE-EF ended up supplying 150 STG200 steplights to fulfil this function. “They wanted to create a walking path around the outside of the park that is a four-kilometre loop and used the WE-EF’s VFL520 luminaires and aluminium poles for this,” Mr Cocker said. That is how MHL first became involved in the project.

The landscape architecture firm, Isthmus, invited the company to provide solutions for lighting John Walker Promenade, a major thoroughfare linking various areas of the park. WE-EF’s VFL520 LED luminaires were the ideal choice for this part of the park, having been specially designed to use a streetlighting distribution [S70] lens to illuminate bike paths and footpaths at night. “From there, we provided lighting along Chapel Road, where they wanted to put in some ETV100 luminaires to light signage along that route,” Mr Cocker said, referring to WE-EF’s linear uplight solution.

A variety of other products were used in the project, which was split up over several areas and completed over a 2-year period. “Because the project as a whole has covered a 13 to 14-year period, many different people from different companies have worked on it. However there was never a time that it was difficult…there weren’t a whole lot of challenges,” Mr Cocker explained. “It helped that we had a really good electrician onsite who knew WE-EF products really well and could install the pole-mounted luminaires. “We weren’t called to the site even once; it just came down to really good communication between what the architect wanted and what we delivered.”

An important aspect of the project from a design and user perspective was the pavilion, a changing room area that has gone on to win numerous design awards. It features a large orange lantern, partly a nod to the large Chinese community living in the area as well as to meet conditions from being under a flight path. WE-EF’s QSI254 bollards are also used at the meeting point outside the changing rooms and FLC100 projectors on the roof structure. “The ceiling is like a layered design, with different layers and parts. We used the FLC100s to throw light across the ceiling to play with shadows and light,” Mr Cocker said. WE-EF products are also used in the children’s ecologically themed playground that features unique sculptural work and in the car park areas.

“It was a pretty awesome project to get involved in,” Mr Cocker said. “What I really enjoyed the most about this project was the streamlining of it, working with the landscape architect on it all, being on the same page… It just flowed and came together. The client is really happy with the end result – there wasn’t any part of the job where the client had regrets.”

Client: Auckland Council
Sales Partner: MHL
Landscape Architect: Isthmus
Photos : Mark Scowen