94 | Stellar Projects: Kerikeri Domain Bringing projects to life The $680,000 skateboard park is one key element of a much wider development within the Kerikeri Domain which will include a basketball court, a new playground, and substantial landscaping including a walkway. Images: Glenn McLelland - Aerial Vision COMMUNITY Sue Russell P 027 542 6966 E build exsolutions@gmail.com Proud to support Stellar Projects www.stellarprojects.co.nz info@stellarprojects.co.nz Level 1, 2 James St, Whangārei Multi-disciplinary project delivery specialists Stellar Projects get involved in some really wonderful developments. The business, established in 2013, is head-quartered in Auckland and has offices based in Wellington, Whangarei and more recently Cambridge. Four directors, Peter Everett, Michael Kwok (Managing Director), Lucas Nikkel and Benji Potvin, lead a company which, today, employs 85. Natalie Donzé, who has been with Stellar three years, is based in Auckland, however as part of her brief as Urban Strategy Team Leader, visits the other offices frequently to support her team’s work across the country. “I’m involved in the design and management of complex ideas, plans and projects in the urbanism realm. We get a brief from a client, which may be a revitalisation project, as is the case with the Kerikeri Domain, and then with our breadth of skills and service offerings at Stellar, steer the project from conception through to completion. It’s a very exciting area to be involved in,” Natalie says. Helping to navigate the myriad of steps with stakeholders and partners including mana whenua, the wider community, council, government agencies and funding resources such as the Provincial Growth Fund, takes time and Natalie says it’s really important to engage well with all groups. “We enable forming ideas to come into a sense of what can be achieved, and what to prioritise, driven from input from the wider community. Often we get involved right at the start when thinking is not completely formed.” The $680,000 skateboard park is one key element of a much wider development within the domain which will include, when completed, a basketball court, a new playground, and substantial landscaping including a walkway. Works on the playground are planned to be completed by the middle of this year. Driving the skate-park was the Working Group and local priority to see youth infrastructure prioritised in the town. “The project benefited a lot from substantial work that had already been done by Council for the resource management plan. This provided a blueprint for the Working Group.” Another project currently occupying the team at Stellar Projects is Wai Horotiu Queen Street, Auckland. It’s a complex, co-designed ‘transitional’ streetscape project on the city’s ‘Golden Mile’. The company has been pivotal in assisting Council to develop the design brief, stakeholder engagement, and the monitoring and evaluation. And up north at Waipapa, 10 minutes north of Kerikeri a sports hub development is underway. Natalie says its essential to get the planning and first steps toward evolving a design right. “It’s critical that you engage in meaningful ways to really get the input you want to help inform a design and especially so when it is a valuable community asset.” She describes Stellar Projects as a nimble organisation, where the experiences and professional skill-sets of all working in the company can be gathered specifically around an individual project. The Landscape and Civil Design teams have also been involved in the Domain Revitilisation. The Kerikeri Skatepark and wider domain development is a project Natalie and the team have all enjoyed contributing to. Its design has ensured young people of all ages and aptitudes in the sport can be catered for, and find ways to improve at their own pace. “For us, it has been a great demonstration of the use of local suppliers and contractors. It brings an added benefit of stimulating economic growth, at a time when COVID has brought its fair share of challenges to small communities, and results in improved spaces for rangatahi to engage with.” “We enable forming ideas to come into a sense of what can be achieved, and what to prioritise, driven from input from the wider community.”
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