Waterfront Auckland (previously named Sea + City) is undertaking a dramatic overhaul of 145ha at Wynyard  Quarter to draw people down to the area with the idea that it become a “harbourside community”.

Plans include plenty of public spaces including a promenade and 4.25ha urban park with playground, large grassed areas and space for outdoor cinema screenings in summer. The 35 metre Golden Bay cement silo will be retained although at the time of writing it hadn’t been confirmed what it would be used for.

Jellicoe Street will be lined with trees and have many outdoor seating areas so it can be a location for markets and other social and cultural events. Wynyard Quarter will also have a theatre, events centre, maritime museum, a strip of eateries and an office building for ASB Bank’s new headquarters.

Works are now well underway with several parts of the project to be finished in time for people to use them when the Rugby World Cup is hosted in September. These include the Viaduct Events Centre, ten restaurants and a promenade at North Wharf, Gateway Plaza public area with steps to the water’s edge and Silo Park.

The red shed at North Wharf that dates back to the 1930s has been redeveloped into a restaurant. Once used by the Auckland Harbour Board, it was until recently in an extremely dilapidated condition and full of old fishing nets.

Its renovation incorporated as many of its original features as possible. The red timber doors of the iconic shed were kept but the building was strengthened internally with steel framing installed. The original wood of the structure was left deliberately looking old and worn to give it character.

The vision for North Wharf and design of its branding was inspired by the idea of what San Francisco’s waterfront would have been like in the 1960s with wide promenades for the public to stroll alongside working fishing boats.

Heritage of the area is given a nod with LED lighting inlaid in the old tram tracks that run along the promenade, and an external wall of the restaurant buildings was made from old packing pallets.

Total Spaces, a joint venture between Downer Group and John Fillmore Contracting, performed undersea works creating a new retaining wall under water to allow the basin to be dredged for reinstatement of the west sea wall as part of heritage reflection.

It involved installing large diameter steel casings, founded on underlying sandstones 20 metres below sea level then removing marine sediment within the piles and replacing it with reinforced concrete.

Piling work was happening in March for the Wynyard Crossing pedestrian and cycling bridge. It will be finished in time for the Rugby World Cup. At the former Oracle site, the 6000sq m Viaduct Events Centre that can host 3,600 people is opening in August. The $160 million ASB Bank office building will be complete by mid-2013.