Ferry Building

The Auckland Harbour Board built the Ferry Terminal in 1909-1912 as the focus for an extensive ferry network. It's grand style (English Baroque) testifies to the importance of water transport at the time. Alexander Wiseman (1865-1915) the architect, was articled to Ed Bartley 1881-85. He began practising as an architect in 1904, creating this masterpiece which has stood the test of time and become an iconic piece on a waterfront which is only now developing to it's potential. There is a well-stocked Department of Conservation (DOC) Information Centre in the Ferry Building and also a kiosk where you can find out about ferry sailings and harbour cruises. Several different ferry companies work the harbour, offering passage to near and far flung marina destinations where some Aucklanders are lucky enough to live and others are happy enough to visit. This is also the starting point for for the Auckland Hop-on Hop-off bus tour which visits the main Auckland attractions. A lively spot in general there are often buskers here and most international visitors end up in this area at some stage, combining to make this the part of Auckland which has the most international and cosmopolitan feel. If often rainy and windy. A Famous eatery named CinCin held the prime spot in this prime building for several decades, giving up the ghost to new names early in the Millenium. Many Aucklanders can tell tales of nights out at CinCin and many more simply can't remember.

Historian Gavin McLean's view on the Ferry Building:
**Steam transport opens up the suburbs
**‘We see these lucky people waiting at the lights at the foot of Queen Street. . . . There is a vague aroma of salt and diesel oil about them as they stand with their feet slightly apart, their heads up and a faraway look (common to explorers and sailors) in their eyes.’ David Balderston had his beloved wooden double-ended ferries in mind when he waxed lyrical about Auckland’s luckiest commuters, but the good news is that these ferry tees and the Ferry Building are humming as people rediscover the joy of entering the city through its traditional front door.

From the 1880s, enterprising operators began offering ‘a smell of the briny for 6d’. The Ferry Building emerged as the jewel in the crown of Auckland Harbour Board engineer WH Hamer’s massive 1904 redevelopment plan for the then-ramshackle port. Harbour board engineers were more important than any architect then, and Hamer’s plan for a new Queen Street wharf included ferry tees (completed in 1907) and this brick and Pyrmont stone office block. Alexander Wiseman’s English baroque ‘handsome pile’, as it was called, took longer to build than planned, since people objected to new buildings blocking harbour views even then, but since 1912 the Ferry Building has housed a variety of mainly shipping industry tenants.

Like the ferries themselves, the building ran into lean times after the harbour bridge opened in 1959, but between 1985 and 1988 it underwent a major refurbishment that added a modern version of the fifth storey originally planned. Passengers still pass through its entrances and shipping companies still chase cargo from its upper storeys.
© 2002 Original text – Gavin McLean.

Further reading: David Balderston, The Harbour Ferries of Auckland, Grantham House, Wellington, 1986; David Johnson, The Auckland Ferry Building, Auckland Maritime Museum, Auckland, 1988.

Soul Machines
One hundred years on the Ferry building is host to what is a very 21st Century enterprise, Soul Machines who "use Neural Networks that combine biologically inspired models of the human brain and key sensory networks to create a virtual central nervous system that we call our Human Computing Engine." The Artificial Intelligence company is lead by guru Dr Mark Sagar whose best known creation is BabyX

**Tours
The Ferry Building is a meeting place for many foot tours of the city:
**ORIGINAL NEW ZEALAND CRAFT BEER TOUR

Auckland from the wharf 1887 by EA Gifford

Image Credits: Ferry buildings, Auckland, 1915, Auckland, by Robert Walrond. Te Papa