Michaels Avenue Reserve upgrade
Overview
| Background
| Draft landscape master plan
| Have your say
Draft landscape master plan
Existing improvements
- Dedicated all-weather training and junior football area potentially a synthetic surface
- New public changing facility nested into the landscape - design and located to accommodate for a future sports club facility
- Lower playing field surface upgrade
Proposed improvements:
- Boardwalk over existing wetland to connect the public with sustainable stormwater solutions
- Groundcovers to open up areas of the park to passive surveillance (CPTED response)
- Combined integrated play/fitness equipment for 8+ year olds
- Tree planting to build cohesive design palette
- Sculptural steel pergola landscape markers used to unify the three landscape character areas within the reserve
- Public changing facilities car park (31 spaces)
- Pedestrian lighting on timer
- Gathering junction - mixture of lawn and paved surfaces with removable bollards
- Ellerslie Recreation Centre car park (24 spaces)
- Sculptural gabion retaining walls to punctuate the two levels, address drainage issues and provide additional useable open space and parking
- Swale systems to allow for interpretation of sustainable stormwater treatment systems
- Sculptural steel pergola landscape markers used to punctuate the primary park entrance
- Lower car park (89 spaces)
- Future cricket nets
- Entry landscape marker
- Predator fence to secure wetland habitat
- Play equipment for 2-8 year olds
- Proposed buildings to be removed
- Bench seating along path network
- Sports flood lighting
The draft landscape master plan is also available below to download in PDF format:
Michaels Avenue Reserve draft landscape master plan (270Kb PDF)
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Michaels Avenue Reserve design statement
The objectives of the draft master plan are based on the draft Parks Plan (2007), the Ellerslie Liveable Community Plan and site-specific
constraints and opportunities. The objectives are to:
- balance formal and informal recreation opportunities - whilst there is a need to improve and maximise the capacity of the reserve
in relation to sports, there is a need to balance this with informal and passive recreation opportunities. The design will provide a range
of informal recreation opportunities for users rather than the current standalone structure.
- increase access and connections to the reserve with a pedestrian priority - the design will connect areas within the park so people
can move easily from one space to another. Improvement to vehicle and pedestrian access for local residents and visitors and connections to
nearby open spaces are key design objectives.
- employ sustainable stormwater treatment solutions - investigate opportunities for using innovative stormwater treatment techniques
in relation to stormwater runoff from the car park and new amenity building. The design will consider connections to the existing wetland and
opportunities for interpretation within the reserve. The master plan will reinforce the character of Michaels Avenue reserve, particularly
its relationship to the existing wetland
- provide a safe environment for reserve users - employ crime prevention through environmental design principles (CPTED). The design
will use a range of techniques to improve actual and perceived safety including any recommendations for management practices to support design
solutions.
- employ sense of place principles - the master plan will ensure design, context, materials and treatments are consistent with, and
complimentary to, the surrounding area.
Design statement
Investigation of Michaels Avenue Reserve in 2006 by Auckland City Council revealed a number of ways to improve the park by building on its
existing features and reducing those that were compromising the quality of the park.
The key structural change is the integration of the lower and upper fields with a unifying public gathering space.
Published July 2007
