My view on the hall

As you’ll know, the position of the hall is something of a problem, as king tides can cause inundation and damage. Recent goings on in the RRA have prompted me to have a think about what should happen to the hall, I poked around council reports, costings, and the possible solutions. It looks like boiling down to:

Two Options
There seem to be only two solutions on the table, demolish the hall and do a new build, as proposed by the RRA committee or the Lift and Shift option, as recommended in the two local board reports.

My preferred option is for a lift and shift, for the following reasons:

A new build will not be fit for purpose
Discussion with community members, along with the results of a survey about what people want and value from facilities showed that a gallery, art space, and, library, and music venue are core requirements rather than peripheral.

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Although square meterage wasn’t discussed in the meeting, it was mentioned that library, artists studio space, and gallery would no longer exist.

A hall with capacity for 40 or so people negates its use as a music venue, so effectively, the new build proposal fails to meet almost all of the community’s requirements.

History and Character
While I’m not a diehard old building preserver, the existing structure does have a quirky presence and a long history in the gulf, having been originally constructed as WWII army barracks on Motuihe Island.

Aesthetics
With a budget of $300,000, a new building is unlikely to be an aesthetic and architectural marvel.

Sustainability
It would be less wasteful and, I think, more in line with the values of the island to re-use rather than trash and rebuild. The local board report suggests the hall is basically sound, and good for another 30 – 50 years.