Muse: A C!#& and Balls Story
35 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 Newer→ Last
-
Test. So to speak...
-
Hello! I popped over on my bike to join the trickle (fnaar) of curious locals. Here are a couple of picture sof the famous New Lynn cock-and-balls from less saucy angles.
-
And a couple more from the lane.
-
I'd started writing something, so I'll just pop it in here ...
New Lynn, the town centre that serves a cluster of West Auckland suburbs, has long been an unlovely, if functional, strip dominated to the east by car yards and centred around LynnMall, which was New Zealand's first American-style shopping mall in 1963, but has seen better days.
But things are changing. New Lynn's place on the revived Western rail line (with its award-winning railway station ) and ample space for brownfields development make it a poster child for Auckland's city planning. While various comfortable suburbs have railed against the Auckland Unitary Plan's vision for residential intensification, New Lynn has embraced the idea – along with a bundle of public projects called The New Lynn Transformation.
The projects include the planned Crown Lynn residential development, which will place a park and apartments on the site of an old clay pit. But the first big step towards a goal of having 20,000 people living within 10 minutes walk of the transit centre.
It seems to have been a bit of a slog: the new shared spaces are in and operating, but it's just not an area people have been used to thronging to. But the news late last year that the new owners of the mall are to spend $36 million on a refresh indicates that it's starting to take.
-
I think the main "problem" as it were, is that if one of the other pieces in the sculpture had been installed first, there wouldn't even be a story. However, the above piece was, so there was opportunity for the NZ Herald to make up the nonsense it has about the piece.
If the other pieces were installed first, or all the pieces at once there'd be no story. Silly, silly Herald.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
If the other pieces were installed first, or all the pieces at once there'd be no story. Silly, silly Herald.
I'm not sure that one was installed ahead of the others actually. The work at a whole is still being installed. It'll look quite different when the lights go on.
-
Grant McDougall, in reply to
I’m not sure that one was installed ahead of the others actually. The work at a whole is still being installed. It’ll look quite different when the lights go on.
Ok. I'm just a bit confused, because the media pics so far are just of "that" one, yet the other pics includes a few others, so I'd assumed they'd all be together. But are they being installed around different locations ?
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
Ok. I’m just a bit confused, because the media pics so far are just of “that” one, yet the other pics includes a few others, so I’d assumed they’d all be together. But are they being installed around different locations ?
No, it’s a single work comprising multiple pieces in the new alleyway to the transit station.
-
Here's the artist Gregor Kregar's portfolio and his Gow Langsford page.
-
if nothing else the owner of that ‘cock and balls’ should get him self checked one ball is significantly larger than the other which could be a sign of testicular cancer
-
Steve Curtis, in reply to
It does sound Russell that you have hardly ever been in New Lynn and relied on the marketing blurbs personally couriered by Penny Hulse. ( Clean Politics?)
I am regularly in there for the last 25 years and remember the opening of Lynn Mall in its original open air mall version. It was all a human scale then.
In reality the redevelopment is a version of Christchurch s experience without EQC, but with public money being used to maintain commercial land values and a 15 storey block of flats that went out of 'fashion' in London 30 years ago but in its Auckland version is plonked down on multilevel concrete carpark.
At night its lit up by leds for green cred, but which emphasis the battery hen construction by showing as stacked boxes viewable for 10 km.Next to it is a new library which is not much different in size to the old version built by New Lynn Borough Council in the 1960s, which was demolished so that Macdonalds could have a larger store with carpark. Good bye book stacks , hello Big Macs
-
And a couple more from the lane.
Well, yes – I'll upload a couple of pix when the broadband is flowing rather than dribbling, but you really do have to work hard to get an outrage-stroking money shot, so to speak. God knows I tried. If anyone has a good picture of Transit Cloud lit up at night, I’m sure we’d all love to see it. At the very least, I suspect it’s more visually appealing (and less intrusive for nearby residents) than than a mass of klieg lights.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
It does sound Russell that you have hardly ever been in New Lynn and relied on the marketing blurbs personally couriered by Penny Hulse. ( Clean Politics?)
Well, twice in the past week, the first time to pick up a new HOP card from the customer service centre at the station. And quite a few times over the years.
I am regularly in there for the last 25 years and remember the opening of Lynn Mall in its original open air mall version. It was all a human scale then.
That was 1963. In more recent years, it was basically abandoned by Westfield. It's been a dump for quite a while. Now it gets a major refit and a multiplex.
In reality the redevelopment is a version of Christchurch s experience without EQC, but with public money being used to maintain commercial land values and a 15 storey block of flats that went out of ‘fashion’ in London 30 years ago but in its Auckland version is plonked down on multilevel concrete carpark.
It's high-density living right on a transport node. And while some of the apartments have issues, overall it's the thing we want more of in Auckland: actual affordable apartment living.
This has been in progress since before the Super City. Another 6ha has just been opened up for development around the forthcoming Crown Lynn Park. It seems pretty good to me. Where do you think new housing should be built?
-
Another 6ha has just been opened up for development around the forthcoming Crown Lynn Park. It seems pretty good to me. Where do you think new housing should be built?
It's also worth pointing out that housing in close proximity to public transport is not only desirable, but required, for a lot more people in Auckland than you might think. High-density housing is preferable to the many exclusionary assumptions in the idea that Auckland can just keep sprawling ad infinitum, with public transport and services lagging far behind
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
Next to it is a new library which is not much different in size to the old version built by New Lynn Borough Council in the 1960s
It's 1000 sq metres. More than double the size of the old library. And it's not exactly new.
-
I've spent a lot of time in New Lynn since I moved almost smack in between it and Blockhouse Bay and I quite like what it has become over that time. Public transport is great (I'm a non driver so use it a lot) and the transport hub a huge improvement over what was there before. It has has number of different quality restaurants to eat out in and most shops you could want. My high school age daughter is very much looking forward to having the one thing it really lacks - a cinema.
I also like the fact that if I feel like somewhere more laid back and quite I can just point southwards and hang out in the Bay instead.
-
Did I mention the wonderful Olympic Park as well?
-
From TransportBlog:
This is a very good and important addition to the mix of dwelling options for Auckland. It will not suit everyone just as detached houses at the end of a long drive does not suit everyone, and nor does it need to. It is great at last to see the market being able to diversify beyond the monotony of ever more distant new greenfields developments.
Just as important are the considerable efforts by all parties here to provide as high quality features as possible for the lower end of the market. In recent decades this has been a segment that no one has properly addressed; we have either built luxurious but expensive apartments or cheap and nasty ones. Both types are clearly visible in the central city. It is really important that the both the Council and the private sector close the door on that regrettable chapter, and find way to insist on and enable higher quality at all market segments.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
It has has number of different quality restaurants to eat out in and most shops you could want.
There seem to be more restaurants at the west end of the town centre every time I go there.
-
Soon Lee, in reply to
There was a multiplex on Clark St* where we would go regularly and maybe one day there will be again.
*It's now a Redpaths furniture shop. That strange disc-thing above the showroom entrance? It was a giant film reel that has since been painted red.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
There was a multiplex on Clark St* where we would go regularly and maybe one day there will be again.
The multiplex coming to the redeveloped Lynnmall is Reading Cinemas' first foray into Auckland.
-
Sam F, in reply to
I remember seeing many of the cinematic triumphs* of the 1990s at that cinema.
*Or so they seemed at the time
-
Bart Janssen, in reply to
It'll look quite different when the lights go on.
They always do, dear.
-
Bart Janssen, in reply to
There was a multiplex on Clark St* where we would go regularly and maybe one day there will be again.
I remember the bowling alley!!!
-
As a local I feel like the kid falling asleep at the dinner table, when suddenly the grown ups mention my name. Yep! Sure! Uh-huh! New Lynn! Yeah! Goin’ off!
the new shared spaces are in and operating, but it’s just not an area people have been used to thronging to
Sadly true. I think while the transport hub’s a good thing for commuters, the whole precinct is still surrounded by thousands of hectares of multi-generational, PT-deprived petrol addicts.
So if I want to visit Alien Vinyl (or even Gregor’s studio) on Veronica St after visiting say, Lynmall or the Library, I have to battle a labyrinth of car-oriented urban design: car parks with no footpaths, main roads, complicated intersections …
I just hope the cineplex will help to create a decent enough destination to pump a bunch of bodies into the shared spaces and *ahem* laneways.
What would be cool is if New Lynn had something like Waterfront Auckland, who could not only plan the development, but also coordinate and promote the social events in the neighbourhood. The New Lynn santa parade just ain’t gonna do it.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.