Harbour View / S&T Wellington

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Text description provided by the architects. What is now one of the most beautiful buildings in the Auckland CBD was once a ghastly blue monster. Left to wilt since the 1980s, the 16 storey apartment building resembled some sort of ancient orphanage, with black windows, dingy steel balconies, and a garden dotted with an assortment of mismatching shrubs. The lobby was even worse. Narrow and irregular, its yellowing walls flanked a bubbling vinyl floor, and the ceiling featured a collection of burnt out light fittings. The closer you got to Harbourview, the more shocking it became. Its occupants and the bodycorp agreed that much, but re-design attempts to date had been too expensive, running into the millions. The building did not seem to be worth the investment.