Highbrook Business Park Wins Prestigious US Award

Highbrook Business Park Wins Prestigious Award In US

The San Francisco-based designers of the Highbrook business park development, situated on the Waiouru Peninsula in Manukau City have received a prestigious international design award by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) for the Highbrook concept.

Peter Walker and Partners have received the top Honour Award in the Design, Analysis and Planning section, for the Highbrook project. The Highbrook design was one of 436 entries submitted to the 2003 International ASLA Awards programme.

The 193-hectare Highbrook site, which previously housed the late Sir Woolf Fisher’s Ra Ora horse stud, will ultimately accommodate a 60-hectare public park with 110 hectares dedicated to business use. The Highbrook site is similar in size to the total Albany industrial area. Highbrook has been designed for organisations that are seeking to maximize productivity by offering their staff a highly stimulating and efficient work environment and easy access to leisure activities.

The ASLA said the “carefully designed infrastructure elements and natural systems work together to create a unique environment that both functions efficiently and aesthetically, addressing the needs of the development and park users.”

Walker’s design for Highbrook builds upon existing landscape features including mature trees, river terraces overlooking the Tamaki River, 12 km of coastal edge, views to major Auckland landmarks and one of Auckland’s oldest volcanic landforms.

Highbrook Chairman and Managing Director, Noel Robinson, said he was “thrilled and honoured to have Peter working on the Highbrook project. Peter has an international reputation for his innovative minimalist designs and mastery of large and complex projects, including the Homebush Bay site designed for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.“ “The attention to detail is unprecedented in a project of this scale in New Zealand. It is also great to see a New Zealand project being recognised by the international design community at this early stage. Peter’s design will represent a turning point in large scale urban design within New Zealand and also Australia, delivering working environments that are unsurpassed in design and functionality.”

“We should also recognize the huge support we have had from Manukau City, and its willingness to work closely with Peter to develop such an innovative concept.”

"Over the past 40 years, Peter Walker has produced an amazing body of work and his approach - to work lightly with the land, not against it - was perfectly suited to Highbrook, which is on a wonderful site,” said Mr Robinson.

The award winning Highbrook design team at Peter Walker and Partners includes a New Zealander, James Lord.

The site, which has been designed to host a mix of offices, warehouses and light industry in a wooded setting, will be completed over a 10-year period.

The Award will be presented in the United States during the ASLA Annual Meeting in early November.

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