Abstract
Aside from a few landmark buildings, the bulk of Aotearoa New Zealand’s built heritage is made up of commercial and industrial heritage buildings which pepper the country’s central business district (CBD) streetscapes. Yet, these ‘good old buildings’ have a vast history of being gravely undervalued in terms of their heritage value and place within a CBD environment. To the naked eye, their often less grand appearance and sometimes outdated functions have caused many over time to simply dismiss them as barriers to progress or unworthy of protection. However, driven by key paradigm shifts within the heritage conservation discipline, new perceptions regarding their value have recently begun to emerge. Whereby cities are starting to see their collections of commercial and industrial heritage buildings as resources they can use to support wider strategies aimed at revitalising their CBDs.
This research focuses on exploring this evolving relationship between heritage conservation and the planning process by investigating the role heritage buildings play in supporting the revitalisation of CBDs in Aotearoa New Zealand’s lower South Island. To do this, the research looks at the three cities of the lower South Island – Timaru, Dunedin and Invercargill. Due to a history of low development pressure, each of the three cities has a CBD that is still heavily defined by the character of their commercial and industrial heritage buildings. However, this same lack of development pressure has meant that in recent years their CBDs have received fewer upgrades, leaving areas in need of a facelift. As a response each city now currently has a City Centre Revitalisation Plan (CCRP) in place aimed at breathing new life back into their CBDs. Whilst each CCRP emphasises the importance of conserving heritage buildings, each city has taken a different approach to what role they have given their buildings within wider revitalisation efforts.
Using qualitative methods in the form of key informant interviews and site observations, the research found that commercial and industrial heritage buildings are valuable resources for supporting CBD revitalisation. It was revealed that if local authorities focus on giving not only their individual heritage buildings, but wider collections a new use and value, they have the potential to make contributions to the social, economic and environmental dimensions of a city. These benefits were observed in practice in each of the three case study locations. Timaru is fostering a sense of place by using its heritage buildings in the creation of a heritage hub and as a canvas for street art; Dunedin is using its heritage buildings to spur economic activity by creating points of difference across four quarters of their CBD; and Invercargill is using the intervention of façadism in an attempt to create a vibrant CBD underpinned by both historic and modern fabric. However, this research also uncovered that there are a number of challenges which impact the role heritage buildings play in revitalisation efforts. Namely, each city has been mostly successful in keeping their heritage buildings but struggle to encourage owners to go the extra mile in undertaking further visual or functional enhancements to their buildings.