Heritage restoration seems to have a renewed energy in Dunedin, heritage historian and Dunedin Gasworks Museum patron Sir Neil Cossons says.
Sir Neil, visiting from England, is keynote speaker at the three-day Heritage Impact 150 symposium, marking the gasworks' 150th anniversary, starting on Thursday.
Sir Neil was particularly impressed by ''superb'' restoration work in the Exchange, such as the Bank of New Zealand building, and the warehouse precinct, which last time he visited, about four years ago, looked ''sad''.
''For someone who only comes intermittently, there's a feeling that Dunedin's on the up.''
Dunedin's historic area was fragile because of the number of gaps, and there were only so many ''missing teeth'' an area could sustain before people stopped believing in its heritage potential.
Heritage development in Dunedin was an example of a trend towards restoring areas, rather than being focused on individual buildings, he said.
The general public increasingly valued heritage areas for their ability to live, work, and socialise in them, rather than being fixated on the architectural value of particular buildings. He did not believe every old building had to be saved, but developers needed to consider potential for re-purposing them instead of pulling them down.
''A building in use is a building which has a future.''
Heritage buildings need not be a brake on progress and development, he said.
Cities needed good central plans to guide heritage development, as well as continuing to listen to developers and community ''visionaries'' whose passion was essential to make things happen.
Attending the 150th anniversary celebration was very special, as there were only a handful of surviving gasworks in the world. Dunedin was New Zealand's last city to close its gas production plant, in 1987.
Sir Neil is visiting Christchurch today to meet heritage advocates before returning to Dunedin.
His keynote address is at 7pm on Thursday, at the University of Otago's Castle 1 Lecture Theatre.
Members of the public are welcome to attend.
