The area of Bridge Street that is the focus for this project includes a number of bars and is an entertainment precinct of Nelson. It had become dark and dingy in the day and a dark unsafe place in the night. The objectives for the Bridge Street enhancement project were to create a safer entertainment precinct at night and to brighten the area to attract more people to the street in the day.

The design approach to the revitalisation of this street was to brighten the space with the use of colour, lighting and street furniture.

The use of colour is key to this project to enhance the space and a refined clean palette of colours was chosen to create a lighter brighter feel – Resene Orient, Resene Waterfront, Resene Meltwater, Resene Bright Spark, Resene Black White and Resene Woodsman Natural stain. The shoreline and the city’s coastal location is depicted in the blue tones of the pavement bands, with a sense of rhythm in the blue tones and the variation of the pattern. The blue palette used for the paint stripes is inspired by the colours of the Tasman Sea with contrasting bright yellow and white street furniture elements.

Lighting has also been a key focus of the project, with the upgrade of street lighting to brighten the mood of the space at night. The introduction of fairy lights and coloured feature lights add to the atmosphere of the space, an overall upgrade of the existing luminaries have been installed.

The inclusion of seating in key locations to attract daytime users to the area and their sculptural form helps to develop a contemporary atmosphere in the street. Bright planters and native planting provide a fresh break to the street and yellow sculptural bike stands stand out providing a focal point and pop of colour.

The story of the historic shoreline and the city’s coastal location is depicted in the pavement artwork.

Planting further enhances the colour palette with a fresh green selection of native plants, which also includes red feature flowers of the poor knights lily and green and brown stripes of ‘chocomint’ flaxes and rusty reds of the estuarine reeds.

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Architectural specifier: Canopy Landscape Architects
Client: Nelson City Council
Photographer: Vanessa McRae
Project: Resene Total Colour Awards 2014