Feb. 10th, 2018 09:25 pm
Local mall coming down
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imhilienI'm a bit sad at the moment as my favourite local mall, '277'* in Newmarket (a shopping district) is to be pulled down soon. It closed the other day. I had found out the news at the beginning of January and it totally floored me - there was nothing wrong with it. I had never heard any rumours of structual faults. It was built in the '80's - maybe that was the fault? One flaw we have in New Zealand is that we're quick to pull down heritage buildings, which in this country means anything nearly a century old, or not even that. Yes, I'm sure the UK / Europe f-list is laughing at this point, rightly so. The exterior was mirrored glass - maybe that was seen as an earthquake risk? But then again, we hardly have earthquakes in Auckland.
I used to go there all the time - it had a bank, bookstore, food court, supermarket** , a tea shop, shoe and clothing shops. It occupied two floors and the top 70% of the building were offices. It will be a real gaping hole in Newmarket, and that thought makes me upset all over again. A replacement mall is to be built, but that will probably take three years(!). There was a mall in the CBD that was pulled down about 18 months ago (which I liked to visit too) and is only half built at this stage. Could the timing be any worse?
277 had a lovely glass dome too and I cringe at the thought of the wrecking ball coming for it. I mean, who would want that saved for something else, right? Ugh.
*it's street number
**There are people living in apartments in Newmarket who now have to go further afield to get to a supermarket. Not everyone has a car, people.
Update: I read an article today that said 277 will be gutted, not torn down. Whew! I can live with that.
I used to go there all the time - it had a bank, bookstore, food court, supermarket** , a tea shop, shoe and clothing shops. It occupied two floors and the top 70% of the building were offices. It will be a real gaping hole in Newmarket, and that thought makes me upset all over again. A replacement mall is to be built, but that will probably take three years(!). There was a mall in the CBD that was pulled down about 18 months ago (which I liked to visit too) and is only half built at this stage. Could the timing be any worse?
277 had a lovely glass dome too and I cringe at the thought of the wrecking ball coming for it. I mean, who would want that saved for something else, right? Ugh.
*it's street number
**There are people living in apartments in Newmarket who now have to go further afield to get to a supermarket. Not everyone has a car, people.
Update: I read an article today that said 277 will be gutted, not torn down. Whew! I can live with that.
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Do you also mean the Downtown mall? I used to go to that a lot when I worked in town. I think they're pulling it down for railway extensions.
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The Downtown mall was pulled down about 18 months ago. *twitches* The new version is half built.