Axis of Memorial

I got bored tonight and inspired by the Memorial Park competition I thought I'd sketch up my idea for said park.

See here, here, and here for some background.

The idea is based something I think is a cool fact about Wellington, and which I'm pretty sure is a complete accident. Parliament, the Cenotaph, Post Office Square, Civic Square, "that-place-that-should-be-a-square", and the War Memorial line up perfectly on a north-south axis. One of my favourite cities in the world is Washington, DC, I love the grand avenues, the grid, the grand parks and memorials everywhere, with surely the most well conceived street layout of all time.

Anyway, Wellington can never be DC, but that doesn't mean Wellington couldn't make a connection between its memorials that spans the city. The Axis just seems too cool not to be that connection and for emphasis in any planning. Future sculptures, monuments, memorials, could be located in the squares along the axis.



The idea carves a parade avenue along the Axis through the nearby area, depending on how ambitious the Gods of Wellington wanted to be it could stretch up to "that-place-that-should-be-a-square", but the intersection of Taranaki and Vivian seems a good place to stop. The grid is completed with the extension of Abel Smith Street. The bypass (Karo Drive) is destroyed and SH1 uses Vivian + Abel Smith Sts. Potentially Mt Cook school would have to be relocated because of the busy Abel Smith St extension.



Or, for more money, the bypass isn't destroyed, and a four-lane tunnel cut under the park for SH1 traffic.