It's not often in this election campaign that we're taken back to the dreaded days of Covid-19 lockdowns by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, but he'll go there when there's a potential upside
Ever wondered what happened to all those shovel-ready construction projects identified and funded with some urgency at the peak of the pandemic to help the building industry keep its workers employed?
One, a remarkable combination of a refurbished, "brutalist 50-year-old building" and a spectacular, light-filled new structure has just opened at the University of Auckland to house its education, social work and creative industries schools.
The new wing covers what used to be a concrete courtyard on Symonds St and the finished complex is not only a hero of the Covid Recovery Fund but six Green Star certified, recognising it as a world leading building. It was funded in part by a $200m, 10-year loan through the public agency the Crown Infrastructure Partners and Infrastructure Reference Group.
The university's vice-chancellor Professor Dawn Freshwater said "Covid-19 is woven into the fabric of this amazing and spectacular building that we have here." When the government called for shovel-ready projects to be submitted for funding, the early work had been done. It became the biggest of the shovel-ready projects approved, she noted, but would not have happened without that urgent recovery funding.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins officially opened the prosaically named Building B201 on Tuesday. Covid, the pandemic, lockdowns and restrictions are not topics commonly raised by government ministers or MPs with a sceptical public, who some might say have a short and unforgiving memory of that time.
"I think by and large New Zealanders have moved on from the pandemic period, and for a whole lot of very understandable reasons, and they don't even want to think about it or talk about it now. But I think we should all be very proud as a country of what we were able to achieve."
He said he would speak of the pandemic response if it was appropriate to do so. "This building was a pandemic project and now you can see the benefits of it."
He used the opening ceremony to recall the early economic support decisions of the pandemic years, and his last visit to the project in 2021.
He was to tour the site on August 17 but as he arrived he received a call, as Covid Recovery Minister, from then Director-General of health Ashley Bloomfield alerting him to the outbreak of the Delta variant of the virus. He flew back to Wellington and soon after became what was the longest of the country's Level 4 lockdowns.
With hindsight, he is able now to refer to that decision as "the beginning of the end of our elimination of Covid. We then went through the bumpy process of seeing Covid-19 in the community and getting our vaccination rates up."
The PM took the chance to acknowledge Aucklanders having taken the lion's share of the burden during the August to November lockdown. "We kept people alive and kept the health system operating and saved the lives of our health workers and exited that part of the pandemic with one of the lowest death rates anywhere in the world," he said.
"Thank you to Auckland."
During the most difficult periods of the pandemic, the economic slowdown was front of mind "for all of us. We knew building and construction would be one of the sectors that would be disrupted."
Hipkins: "This building is one of our legacies. It was shovel-ready, it was a good investment for the university, it was a good example of what we can do when we rethink how we construct buildings and re-purpose buildings. One of the things we are proud of is that this is a repurposed building.
"It's one of the most environmental buildings in the country and that's a legacy of the decisions that we took in 2020 to back projects like this. We can look back and say there were some really good things that came out of that.
"What's more amazing is what's going to happen in this space now. It's a huge milestone on many levels."
Hipkins said his time as Prime Minister had coincided with shovel-ready projects started during the pandemic being completed, including the University of Otago's trades training centre, an airport building at Taupō and a sports campus in Upper Hutt.
The university will bring its education and social work faculty to B201 from its Epsom location at the start of the 2024 year.
Freshwater said the decision not to demolish a former science building on the site but instead to refurbish and save on embedded carbon showed the university's commitment to sustainable processes and action. "It's our hope B201 inspires others to see what can and should be done."
Poet and university professor Selina Tusitala Marsh read a specially-written new poem about the building, its heritage and its future promise to the opening ceremony.
B201
By Selina Tusitala Marsh
For the Opening of the University of Auckland’s Social Sciences Building
(Thanks to Jasmax and Haumi)
It’s really, really hard to write A poem about a building Its rhymes are all square-cornered Its rhythms are unyielding
But this six starred green beauty This is another story Waipapa Taumata Rau Is building upon history
Waipapa, the way of water Runs through B201 Taumata, achievement and excellence Of Rau, of everyone
Activates this space Where generations are regenerated The adaptive reuse of what was before Form the bones of story translated:
Apihai’s gift, Ngāti Whātua o Ōrākei, A building here half a century Six stars makes us world leaders In low carbon design sustainability
Waipapa’s history of rich industry Where waka ramps bind land to sea In 1838 reciprocal exchange Between Pākehā and Māori
185 years on Reciprocal exchange remains: Knowledge, story, innovation, ideas Runs through our now global veins
Our B201 landing ramp Forged in Waipapa’s backyard Flows to our Marae and our Fale Linking Symonds Street to Wynyard
This is intuitive wayfinding Conceived from panels of tukutuku Crossing, weaving, exchanging, binding Releasing korero, knowledge, old and new
He tukutuku korero, he tukutuku mātauranga Green energy fastens hearts and minds Rightly tensioned, forward-facing Mirroring our global marae
Te Ara Tukutuku, the pathway Between Tane Māhuta and Tangaroa Tuku atu, tuku mai, hand over hand Trading knowledge from sea to shore
Te Ara Moana’s bold, thick lines Draws blue sky to green deep of land Like ancestral search for new horizons We question, create, understand
Shimmying through these panels Ngāti Whātua’s favorite diamond pātiki Flounder founder of manākitanga Reciprocity, mana motuhake
Ranginui’s stairway steps in Walker’s truth: To climb is to descend To lead singularly is to serve the many Seek excellence without end
Te Ātea o Hine, Aunty Hilda’s domain Marks the restoration of campus mana Hilkyard-Harawera’s unwavering stand -- Colonialism’s own belladonna
Currents of tukutuku steel-timber waves Form a gateway above our heads Valley floor and mountain peak Synergising humanity’s threads
The crossed spines of two spatial axes Run East to West and North to South Connects all who shelter, to land and water Links this space to ourselves
For here is where we land and learn Here we challenge and yearn Here we press and transgress And here is where we never forget
That as knowledge moves It always grows Circulates, connects Equips and embolds
So, welcome to Building 201 Our work, our play, has just begun.
