Saturday's Reclaim: Visions of Vogel St exhibition attracted crowds of people interested in having a taste of life as it was over the years in the city's warehouse district.
Displays, games, food, projections and people dressed as characters with an involvement in the area told stories connected with the companies there and the people who lived, worked and played in the street.
Displays covered from when the land was reclaimed, through its commercial and industrial heyday, to its links to music, the creative arts and agriculture and the fairly quiet modern day.
The exhibit was the work of several groups of Otago Polytechnic students, but largely that of third-year communication design students, who had the task of completing an interactive design project for the year.
The idea of researching the history of the street, which is slowly being revitalised as an area for high-tech and creative businesses, and turning it into an ''experience'', came from design lecturer Caroline McCaw, a former resident in the area.
She said it seemed to be the ideal place to do such a thing because of its rich and long history, and the exhibition had worked out well, thanks to the support of residents and businesses and a collaboration with the polytechnic's culinary course students.
It attracted a decent crowd, considering it was low budget and there had been little advertising.
She said it would be ''lovely'', if the exhibit could be used again in the future somewhere, permanently.
