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With the redevelopment of the Horny Bull site looming, the designer of the new building speaks of regrets at being unable to reach agreement with the Tauranga City Council over Masonic Park.
How the block will look next summer. Picture: Noel Jessop Architecture
The buildings housing The Horny Bull, Como Cucina and Buddha Lounge are expected to be knocked down at the end of the month.
The block, like most of the buildings on The Strand, is considered earthquake prone, requiring work to meet safety standards.
The redevelopment plans for the Horny Bull have gone through two sets of owners.
The Reynolds brothers started it off and then sold to Hamilton developer Terry Scott of Redline Holdings Ltd.
He brought in a new designer, Hamilton based architectural designer Noel Jessop.
Noel does a lot of commercial industrial work and higher end residential.
“Our business quantity-wise is probably larger commercial than it is residential if you look at numbers of projects,” says Noel.
“It’s a good project, and will do something that will hopefully be attractive to Tauranga, and it’s something we want to be proud of as well,” says Noel.
The Horny Bull has re-signed to go back in there and will occupy the same corner beside the Masonic Park. Zaggers Café is another confirmed tenant.
“There is still some space left there,” says Noel.
“We have done a proposal for a small bar at the rear of the site at the west facing rear courtyard and also a courtyard out onto the park.
“It will be quite a good environment, so there is an intention to get another bar type business in there.
“There is also a possibility for an office on the first floor overlooking the park and the strand. It is a fantastic spot.”
The redevelopment of the site has gone through several different versions concerning the new building’s outlook onto the park.
As designed the new building’s south wall is inset from the property boundary to the park to provide access without encroaching on the park.
The council plan for the park in March 2011, Picture TCC.
The Horny Bull’s leased lean-to on the park will be gone with the new building.
“Our approach to the entire project was we wanted to have the building relate to the park and the park relate to the building,” says Noel.
“We wanted to have that interaction between the two spaces.
“We were discussing quite heavily with council about the merging of the landscaping between the building and the park.”
At the moment there is a clear line between the building and the park, says Noel
“This is the park, this is the building that adjoins the park – there’s no relationship between the two,” says Noel.
He tried to discuss with council staff the possibility of merging the landscaping between the two projects, says Noel.
“And also finding out their proposals for the park so that we could actually follow that through as well, so there was a consistency there and a cohesion between the two properties.”
Those discussions broke down.
“We sat down with landscape architect Darryl Scott and pitched ideas to the council to make the two of them together.
We always wanted to make sure the building had a relationship to the park.
We didn’t want it solely concentrated on The Strand because there was an element there to attract people into the building, so there was definitely a potential retail value to our client. But we thought if the building could relate to the park people can sit there and be involved in it, then it adds value to the park as well, make it a useable space.
At the moment it just seems to be a thoroughfare.
“I’m not from Tauranga, but from being there and watching how it works just seems to be point A to point B, you don’t really seem to stop.”
The council’s plans for the Masonic Park redevelopment, which involved collecting ideas from a public ‘cake and coffee day’ and the subsequent publication of concept drawings, were shelved late last year because of budget constraints.
The council then offered Redline Holding the option of paying for its own landscape development, as long as council had control.
“So they wanted our client to pay and they wanted to control it,” says Noel.
“They made a few assumptions in their design which they hadn’t consulted our client on, so in the end it got a bit too hard.”
Another view of the council concept as of March 2011 showing a cantilevered Horny Bull building. Picture TCC.
The new building is expected to be completed by November, in time for the 2013-13 summer season.
The Horny Bull rebuild marks the first in an expected flurry of redevelopment along The Strand and owners compare the costs of required strengthening versus rebuilding.
The nearly historic Grumpy Mole saloon on the corner of Harington Street is also marked for demolition as part of a $40 million redevelopment of the block including the neighbouring Bahama Hut, the backpackers and Tauranga City Markets.
Also on the council list of buildings requiring earthquake strengthening work are 83 The Strand, 85 The Strand, and The Crown and Badger at 87.
The Naked Grape at 103 along with neighbouring sites on Wharf Street also require work as do the neighbours the former Saint Amand Hotel now Harbourside City Backpackers at 105 The Strand.
Posted on 05-02-2012 16:56 | By bigted
Looking at the vague sketches shows that the black objects look like washed up containers from Rena, the building looks like a wharfside building to store them in! Horrid.