A Queenstown architect’s remodelling of the resort’s O’Connells shopping centre has been shortlisted twice over for the prestigious World Architecture Festival awards.
"It’s great news," says Preston Stevens, above, who was project lead for McAuliffe Stevens.
The firm’s one of eight shortlisted in the ‘shopping’ category and one of 12 listed in the ‘retrofit’ category.
Stevens was also project architect for Queenstown’s Holiday Inn Express, which was shortlisted in the ‘hotel and leisure’ category in 2021.
Stevens, who’s practised in Queenstown for 30 years, says a challenge was dealing with one of only three buildings on a large site in central Queenstown — one that’s five levels when most buildings are two-level.
"That drives a lot of the architecture behind it.
"That’s why you’ve got a very plain roof, so your eye is drawn down to the lower levels.
"There’s a durability involved, which the client wanted to have, so the materials are very strong and permanent.
"There’s a reflection of the mountain landscape in the verandas and so on."
Durable materials include the copper gables — "when it ages, it ages to the exact colour of our mountains".
Stevens will attend the awards function in Singapore in November, where he’ll present his project to the judges. Category winners are then shortlisted for ‘world building of the year’.
