Te Kopahou entranceway on south coast wins NZILA Award

NEWS RELEASE 22 March 2015

Te Kopahou entranceway on south coast wins NZILA Supreme Award

The entranceway and visitor centre at the Te Kopahou Reserve on Wellingtons south coast has won the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects George Malcolm Supreme Award for its outstanding design and execution.

The award was presented at the NZILA annual conference in Rotorua on Friday evening.

Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown says the award is a fine tribute to the huge amount of painstaking work over the past few years to transform the entrance of the former Owhiro quarry into a beautiful and popular gateway to Te Kopahou Reserve.

The overall project was led by Wellington City Councils senior landscape architect, Charles Gordon. Council architect Carlos Gonzales was instrumental in creating the visitor centre building.

Mayor Wade-Brown says anyone who remembers the very unpleasant industrial landscape at the western end of Owhiro Bay Parade after the closure of the quarry and its takeover by the City Council in the late 1990s will celebrate the transformation.

It was a blasted, potholed area, pretty much devoid of any vegetation, and it was dominated by a very large and ugly workshop building.

Now the area is truly attractive. The landscaping and planting has had time to become established and the quarry building has been repurposed in a highly creative way to become a busy and popular visitor and interpretive centre.

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Te Kopahou entranceway on south coast wins NZILA Award