Wynyard Quarter Development - Providing Stormwater Solutions in a Highly Constrained, Iconic, Urban Environment

The Wynyard Quarter in downtown Auckland is New Zealand’s largest urban renewal project. This area is being transformed from an industrial precinct into an iconic, high profile urban environment with very high emphasis on urban design.

One major challenge of the project has been integrating a comprehensive stormwater management system into the urban design, whilst avoiding some very significant engineering constraints. These included close proximity to tidal influences, contaminated soils and a very flat terrain. A combination of innovative urban design and significant engineering constraints meant conventional approaches to stormwater design would not be possible.

A key to the success of this project was the collaboration between the engineering and urban design teams and a willingness to challenge conventional stormwater management techniques. This paper will describe some of the innovative solutions that were developed for the Wynyard Quarter and discuss how they might benefit other urban renewal projects.