Frequently described as the Queenstown CBD’s heart, the Village Green — officially opened 30 years ago this month — owes its existence to a fire, to the negotiating skills of a mayor and a councillor, and to an award-winning design.
Bordered by Camp, Ballarat and Athol Sts, the 998sq m site was occupied for about 100 years by the White Star Hotel.
That was until it was burnt down on New Year’s Day, 1970. According a history of the local fire brigade, the fire was started by an electrical fault in a store room beside the bar.
The bar was left standing for another 12 months before the site became an unsealed carpark under successive private owners.
The final one was an Auckland development company which bought it in 1986 during a property boom for a reported $4 million.
Enter then mayor John — now Sir John — Davies, who said "I always thought the council should buy it if they got an opportunity".
In 1988, after the sharemarket crash, he said an agent for the developer, DDS Smith — Derek Darlington Shepherd Smith — offered the council the site for $1.8 million.
"I got the council together and said ‘We’ve got an option on this’, and it was bloody expensive we thought at the time," Sir John said.
"We discussed it for quarter of an hour, 20 minutes, then someone moved an amendment to say we would offer $1.7m.
"I thought, ‘Jeez, I’m going to lose this’, so I turned around to Nancy Williams, who was the deputy mayor, and said, ‘You’ve got to take the meeting now’.
"She said ‘Why?’ and I said, ‘Well, I’m going to buy it myself at $1.8m and put a building on it’.
"I came back 10 minutes later and they said, ‘You’ve won, it’s $1.8m’."
At the time, council chief executive Bill Byers told Mountain Scene: "Accusations have been made for years that the heart of Queenstown is a concrete jungle.
"There was strong demand for a green in the centre of town.
"We had to buy that site before it was built on and that option was taken away from us."
Next, enter former councillor Warwick Goldsmith, who proposed turning the council’s newly acquired site, which was still a carpark, into a reserve, by opening up Horne Creek.
"You know how some people react when you try and take away carparks, so, when I first took it to council, it went down 13-2 — the only councillor who supported me was the late Barry Lawrence.
"So I went away and spent a few months doing some politicking and brought it back again and it passed."
Enter then-Boffa Miskell landscape architect Paddy Baxter, in conjunction with his boss, John Darby.
"We were advised by council they’d like to keep it as flat as possible, so the first sketch design only had a small open area by the old bridge," Mr Baxter said.
"Then we ... did another concept which opened up the whole thing and ripped up the big concrete culvert that went through it."
Mr Baxter said the stepped-down rock terraces were influenced by having been brought up by rivers.
The terraces worked, as during the 1994 flood they stopped Horne Creek overflowing into The Mall by half an inch.
Boffa Miskell won awards for its design, which was brought to life by contractor Turnbull Development.
Mr Baxter said it had originally been designed to link in with an extension to the old Stanley St council building, which never proceeded.
"It’s worked really well as a performance space, and just a place to relax — it’s the only real green space in the centre of town."
He said because Horne Creek flowed under the Athol St carpark, "there’s still an opportunity to open a section of it there — it would be wonderful".
Meanwhile, Sir John said, "I often wonder what the town would have been like if the square wasn’t there".
