Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism John Key yesterday unveiled the plans for Queens Wharf for next year's Rugby World Cup celebrations.The plans centre around a $9.8 million "multi-purpose, temporary facility" named The Cloud (pictured above
Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism John Key yesterday unveiled the plans for Queens Wharf for next year's Rugby World Cup celebrations.
The plans centre around a $9.8 million "multi-purpose, temporary facility" named The Cloud (pictured above).
The redeveloped Queens Wharf will also feature landscaped open areas. Shed 10 will be refurbished and remain onsite.
The historic (if crumbling) Shed 11 be "disassembled".
The 178.5m long Cloud will have a steel and timber frame, covered in an opaque PVC fabric. The walls will be be a mix of glass and clear ETFE clear plastic membrane.
The ground floor will be 3400 square metres; the mezzanine 512sqm.
The Cloud will be able to hold almost 6000 people and will be used for concerts and festival events, as a "fan zone" for watching World Cup matches.
A mezzanine floor at the harbour end of The Cloud will be used as an international media lounge and for VIP hosting.
And Tourism New Zealand will maintain an "i-Site" within the cloud.
The Cloud is scheduled to be open for 45 days over the course of the World Cup.
And certainly, some of its materials, such as the PVC fabric and plastic membrane, seem distinctly impermanent.
But over the weekend, World Cup minister Murray McCully mused that the structure - still officially billed as temporary - could be used for years to come for events such as Fashion Week, the Boat Show and the Pacific Forum leaders conference.
Construction timeline
The official construction timeline (below) begins with two tight targets, calling for the removal of historic Shed 11, and the off-site fabrication of The Cloud, by the end January.
But then it turns a little vague, with onset assembly of The Cloud scheduled for sometime between February and August.
October – January 2010
• Disassembly of Shed 11
• Wharf surface upgrades
• Below-wharf repairs and maintenance continue
• Cloud materials manufactured
• Off-site fabrication of The Cloud
February – August 2011
• Shed 10 repairs
• The Cloud erected and fitted out
