Directional dimensions
THE ARRIVAL AT THE 180M SILVERY-GLASS tower, topped with its distinctive curved foil, begins at the corner of Albert and Customs Streets, one of multiple entries to Auckland’s $1-billion downtown office and retail development known as Commercial Bay. The space is glass walls and footpath canopies: small, a kind of ante-lobby off the street. Inside, there’s the obligatory suspended artwork/sculpture and surrounds of glitzy floor and wall finishes – imported Atlantic granite and Italian travertine. Very corporate but also a tasteful match to the building podium’s beige Jura limestone cladding.
Beneath one’s feet are the two underground tunnels of the City Rail Link beginning to curve their way from Britomart Station to the cut-and-cover trench of Albert Street – tunnels that have played a significant part in a public space trade-off crucial to the scheme, as well as bringing something of a headache to the design.
It’s from this street-level anteroom that the tower’s 3000-plus office workers (some of whom will have partaken of the end-of-trip facilities behind this entrance – stowed their bikes in the two-level bike stacker, stashed the Lycra in the lockers, showered and suited up for work) will begin their ascent up two flights of escalators to the light and nirvana of the tower’s real entrance, known as the Sky Lobby.
The Sky Lobby is indeed a sight to behold – a
