Singapore-based architects ar + d are leading the design on a landmark luxury waterfront hotel in New Zealand, the flagship for a harbour-wide regeneration scheme.

Architects ar + d have previously worked on Hyatt hotels in Kilimanjaro and Koh Samui. Specialists in the hospitality sector, Conran and Partners, will be creating the interior design and visitor experience, using the hotel’s harbour settings as inspiration.

The hotel will look out on the Viaduct Harbour and Te Wero Bridge. It will be a premium hospitality destination and NZ$2.5m (US$1.8m, €1.7m, £1.2m) will be spent on public spaces along the Viaduct Harbour edge – giving people access to the marina and water, as well as art around the hotel.

Scheduled for a 2017 opening, the 25,000sq m (269,070sq ft), 190-room Park Hyatt hotel will have three restaurants (one rooftop), spa and fitness centre, ballroom and 25m pool.

New Zealand practice Bossley Architects and Conran and Partners are also working on the NZ$200m (US$145m, €133m, £94m) six-storey Park Hyatt Auckland.

The hotel will be managed as a five-star luxury Park Hyatt and is being built by the Beijing-based Fu Wah International Group, in partnership with Waterfront Auckland.

The hotel's prime location benefits from the ongoing regeneration of the city’s Wynyard Quarter by Waterfront Auckland. The 37-hectare area, bordered by the Waitemata Harbour, traditionally a marine and fishing zone, is part of the largest urban revitalisation scheme in New Zealand.

Restaurants, cafes, parks and walkways have opened up the area for public leisure use, and apartments and townhouses and retail space are being built, along with new office space to attract workers.

Architectus, Athfield Architects and Studio Pacific Architecture are behind the first residential developments at Wynyard Quarter.

Newly-released details show five sites are earmarked for development over the next ten years. The first site, Wynyard Central, overlooks the recently developed Daldy Street Park and has freestanding pavilion-like structures, three level townhouses and an apartment tower. The second site features a signature building at 132 Halsey Street overlooking Viaduct Harbour.

Marine-based leisure is being redeveloped with a superyacht refit facility at the Wynyard Marine area next to Silo and Westhaven Marinas.

New waterfront cultural attractions include a NZ$35m (US$25m, €23m, £16m) 650-seat, eco-theatre currently under development for Auckland Theatre Company.

The ASB Waterfront Theatre has been designed by Moller Architects and BVN Architecture as a 5-star Green Star certified building. An additional 200-seat flexible studio space and gallery, courtyard, bar and café will also feature at its North Wharf site, set to open in 2016.

Waterfront Auckland CEO John Dalzell said Park Hyatt Auckland will become a ‘catayst’ for growth in the region.

“The bar was set high with this project: an exceptional design to complement the award-winning designs of other buildings and public spaces delivered to date; an investor that was willing to look long term; and an appreciation of the importance of building sustainably.

“The result will be a true international standard hotel that, over time, will become a key catalyst for economic activity on the waterfront and the Auckland region as a whole.”

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