The City to Sea Bridge is a pedestrian bridge and public artwork located in

Wellington City Wellington is Capital of New Zealand, the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the List of cities in New Zealand, third-largest city ...

, New Zealand. Opened on 31 October 1993, the wedge-shaped bridge crosses

arterial road An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights o ...

Jervois Quay, connecting the public spaces of

Civic Square A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Relat ...

to the Wellington waterfront precinct at

Whairepo Lagoon Whairepo Lagoon is an open public area at the centre of Wellington, New Zealand. It is a small man-made lagoon filled with sea water and connected to Wellington Harbour through a narrow channel. A split-level footbridge over the mouth of the la ...

. Around the square are the

Michael Fowler Centre The Michael Fowler Centre is a concert hall and convention centre in Wellington, New Zealand. It was constructed on Reclamation of Wellington Harbour, reclaimed land next to Civic Square, Wellington, Civic Square, and is the pre-eminent concert s ...

Wellington Town Hall The Wellington Town Hall () is a concert hall and part of the municipal complex in Wellington, New Zealand, which opened in December 1904. It has been closed to the public since the 2013 Seddon earthquake for extensive strengthening work, and ...

, Wellington City Art Gallery and

Wellington Central Library Wellington Central Library () is a public library building in the central business district of Wellington, in New Zealand. It is owned by Wellington City Council and is listed as a Category 1 historic place by Heritage New Zealand. The building ...

. In 1983 the Wellington Civic Trust ran a competition for ideas to address the separation of the city from the harbour. Wellington City Council developed a brief for a bridge that could address the significance of the waterfront and public space, and, importantly, that it should be a bi-cultural project that celebrated a relationship between Māori and Pākehā. Globally renowned Māori architect, Rewi Thompson, was appointed alongside prominent local architect John Gray. Gray was one of the founders of Victoria University of Wellington's architecture department and one of the lead consultants of the winning design team, Paperchase, which led the development of the Wellington central harbour waterfront, converting it from an 'industrial wasteland' to an accessible public space. Gray and Thompson collaborated with artists

Paratene Matchitt Paratene Temokopuorongo Matchitt (10 August 1933 – 19 July 2021) was a New Zealand sculptor and Painting, painter, known for combining traditional Māori culture, Māori art forms with those of modernist art. His work also references events fr ...

and Matt Pine, who contributed the sculptural artworks. The primary role of the bridge was to connect the city to the sea, as part of an ongoing transformation of the waterfront and urban cultural center. It was also designed to be a public meeting place, a space to ask questions and reflect on both public and environmental concerns. The use of manmade materials and angular sculpted forms on the city side shifts at the midpoint to use more natural and organic forms at the point where one first encounters the ocean and walks towards the harbour. A large pyramid-shaped structure and Matt Pine’s classically shaped limestone sculptures frame the base of the brick steps leading from the library and City Gallery. In contrast to this, lengths of abandoned hardwood that had previously lined the wharf were used to form the original steps of the structure on the side where one walks down towards the sea. The steepness of the sea side of the bridge was proposed by Gray and Thompson to mimic the uplifted and eroded landforms of Wellington and symbolise a point of arrival and change. Although the base is concrete, it was designed to mimic a stone, cliff edge and the steep, uplifted typography that would have been discovered at Wellington's original harbour point between Lambton and the uplifting Terrace hillside, prior to the reclamation of the land on which the inner city stands. The bridge is adorned with non-traditional wooden sculptures carved by Matchitt out of Californian redwood grown on Matchitt's farm. These formed the balustrades, that include hidden alcoves where people could sit, huddle, and look out, down and through. Sculptures of different creatures adorn the outer edges. On one side are two whales representing the

taniwha In Māori mythology, taniwha () are large supernatural beings that live in deep pools in rivers, dark caves, or in the sea, especially in places with dangerous currents or deceptive breakers (giant waves). They may be considered highly respecte ...

Ngake and Whātaitai, who according to the Māori creation story of Wellington Harbour, carved a path to the open sea and turned to stone and earth to rest upon the shore. On the other side are two large seagulls, said to represent welcome and festivity. Matchitt said the concept came from the fact that seagulls always seem to perch on bridges.

On top of the bridge, six tall

pouwhenua Pouwhenua or pou whenua (land post), are carved wooden posts used by Māori, the indigenous peoples of New Zealand to mark territorial boundaries or places of significance. They are generally artistically and elaborately carved and can be found ...

point upward toward the sky, with metal shapes of stars, moons, and other symbols inspired by themes of celestial navigation celebrating Māori arrival to Aotearoa. One of the shapes is an arrowed heart that is thought to symbolise the sufferings of the Māori people. These symbols reference those found on the ''Te Wepu'' flag captured by

Te Kooti Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki ( 1832–1893) was a Māori leader and guerrilla fighter who was the founder of the Ringatū religion. While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to ...

in 1868. Matchitt's work was influenced by Te Kooti's philosophies and he used these symbols in other sculptures as well as the bridge. At the Civic Square base of the bridge are two Oamaru stone sculptures by Matt Pine, titled ''Prow'' and ''Capital''. A plaque here states:

Capital and Prow: The sculptures by Matt Pine on either side of the stairs are part of a series of 10 works called Reflections on an Ancient Past. Capital (above) is based on European classical architectural elements with koru form on the edges. Prow (on the other side) depicts a Maori canoe prow with Taniko weave motif on the edges - a mix of European and Maori cultural elements.

File:City to Sea MRD 01.jpg, Para Matchitt poles decorated with symbols File:City to Sea MRD 03.jpg, Whale sculptures File:Birds (67298629).jpeg, Bird sculptures File:Detail of the City to Sea Bridge (porthole).jpg, Grill-work porthole in bridge

Reception

Art historian Robin Woodward identifies ''City to Sea Bridge'' as what he saw as one of the top sculptures that " ntegratedthe urban and the sculptural" in New Zealand, alongside Terry Stringer's '' Mountain Fountain'' (1981) and

Greer Twiss Greer Lascelles Twiss (born 23 June 1937) is a New Zealand sculptor, and in 2011 was the recipient of an Icon Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, limited to 20 living art-makers. Career Twiss was born in Auckland on 23 June 1937, ...

' '' Karangahape Rocks'' (1969). Public reaction to the bridge was mixed when it was built, but it has become a tourist attraction in its own right.

History

Problems with the bridge's design and construction have been ongoing. Remedial work was undertaken immediately after the bridge opened when it was found that small children could fall through gaps, and in 1995 it was discovered that gaps appeared if one leant on the handrail. Inadequate drainage leading to rot was discovered in 2005 and urgent strengthening work to prevent the bridge's "unexpected collapse" was undertaken in 2010 and 2011. The bridge's superstructure and frame were built to then-current standards, but its piles to an outdated 1984 standard, and do not extend fully down to bedrock. In August 2018 an engineering assessment based on a visual inspection found the piles were built to handle lower earthquake loads than the rest of the bridge, but noted that these structural problems might actually improve its resistance to earthquakes, by taking to load off other parts of the structure during an earthquake, and that previous strengthening work had been done correctly, raising it to 40 per cent of New Building Standard. Between 15 October 2011 and 31 January 2012, protesters set up a camp on the raised grassed area on the Civic Square side of the bridge. The protest, 'Occupy Wellington', began in support of the international

Occupy movement The Occupy movement was an international populist Social movement, socio-political movement that expressed opposition to Social equality, social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of real democracy around the world. It aimed primar ...

but during the occupation the focus changed to an emphasis on homelessness. The protest cost ratepayers more than $65000 in legal fees, security and repairing damage to the lawn.

Proposed demolition

The Wellington City Council consultation summary of the 2021 Precinct Framework incorrectly identified Ian Athfield as the designer of the City to Sea Bridge and commented that Mana Whenua were not represented in the area. The same document identified the potential for poor seismic performance and also highlighted a disconnection between Civic Square, the central city, and the waterfront. In November 2023, the Council announced that as part of its ten-year plan it would cut $170m from its budget for Civic Square and the City to Sea Bridge. Councillors voted against spending the $230m needed to strengthen the bridge and the Capital E building adjoining it, and instead allocated $65m to look at three options, one involving strengthening and two others the demolition of both structures. One of the original architects, John Gray, began a campaign to save the bridge, stating that losing it would be like "losing a brother". Councillor Iona Pannett pushed for an amendment to delay the decision to demolish the bridge but was unsuccessful after in December 2024 the council voted 11–6 in favour of the demolition. The demolition was expected to begin in January 2025, however this did not occur because Wellington Civic Trust will take the issue to a two-day court hearing starting on 28 April 2025, arguing that the public was not adequately consulted about the demolition.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Wellington City Concrete bridges in New Zealand 1990s architecture in New Zealand Bridges in the Wellington Region Pedestrian bridges in New Zealand Wellington Central, Wellington