Tank Park_

Wynyard Quarter was once a bay known as Waiatarau 'The Reflecting Waters'. The land was incrementally reclaimed from the Waitematā Harbour over the last century, and has served industrial purposes for most of that time – housing bulk storage of tallow, cooking oils, petrochemicals and caustic soda colloquially known as ‘Tank Farm’.

This project imagines a transformation from ‘Tank Farm’ to ‘Tank Park’ the newest addition to Wynyard Quarter’s design-led transformation. Tank Park creatively adapts and reveals the sites unique post-industrial character (near mythology) into an authentic, engaging and immersive landscape experience and landmark at the confluence of the ‘waterfront’ and ‘park’ axes and geographical heart of the Quarter.

The design approach imagines a fusion of industrial history and coastal landscape as authentic record of the history of this site; an enduring legacy for the people and community of Tāmaki Makaurau. It will be a transitional and experimental space that compliments and celebrates Silo Park and the precincts marine industry, working waterfront and landscape character that contains and reveals its rich layers of natural, cultural and social history.

Tank Park will play a role in the array of retained and recreated tank structures along the North/ South Daldy Street Linear Park axis, stitching the history of ‘Tank Farm’ into the fabric of the new Wynyard Quarter development. It defines the geographical centre of the Quarter and the ‘hinge’ between the orientations of the southern (1935) and northern (1945) reclamations. The retained and constructed Tank forms provide a new spatial function as hubs of activation and special activity that compliment Silo Park and Daldy Street Park. The retained stainless steel ‘bulk liquid’ tanks compliment the retention of former concrete plant silo’s within Silo Park.

The project creates the opportunity to lead a lasting legacy for the site that informs the future redevelopment of the Wynyard Quarter headland. Succeeding in achieving an authentic identity, quality open spaces, new public experiences, opportunities for indigenous cultural resonance and community engagement will provide confidence in the future of the headland and the ability for multiple activities and programs to co-exist alongside industrial archaeology and high-quality open spaces.