City to Sea Bridge

The City to Sea Bridge is a pedestrian bridge and public artwork located in Wellington City, New Zealand. Opened on 31 October 1993, the wedge-shaped bridge crosses arterial road Jervois Quay, connecting the public spaces of Civic Square to the Wellington waterfront precinct at Whairepo Lagoon. Around the square are the Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington Town Hall, Wellington City Art Gallery and Wellington Central Library.

In 1983, the Wellington Civic Trust ran a competition for ideas to address the separation of the city from the harbour. Wellington City Council developed a brief for a bridge that could address the significance of the waterfront and public space, and, importantly, that it should be a bi-cultural project that celebrated a relationship between Māori and Pākehā. Architects Rewi Thompson and John Gray were appointed. Gray was one of the founders of Victoria University of Wellington's architecture department and one of the lead consultants of the winning design team, Paperchase, which led the development of the Wellington central harbour waterfront, converting it from an 'industrial wasteland' to an accessible public space. Gray and Thompson collaborated with artists Paratene Matchitt and Matt Pine, who contributed the sculptural artworks.

The primary role of the bridge was to connect the city to the sea, as part of an ongoing transformation of the waterfront and urban cultural centre. It was also designed to be a public meeting place, a space to ask questions and reflect on both public and environmental concerns.

The use of manmade materials and angular sculpted forms on the city side shifts at the midpoint to use more natural and organic forms at the point where pedestrians first encounter the ocean and walk towards the harbour. A large pyramid-shaped structure and Matt Pine’s classically shaped limestone sculptures frame the base of the brick steps leading from the library and City Gallery. In contrast to this, lengths of abandoned hardwood that had previously lined the wharf were used to form the original steps of the structure on the side where pedestrians walk down towards the sea. The steepness of the sea side of the bridge was proposed by Gray and Thompson to mimic the uplifted and eroded landforms of Wellington and symbolise a point of arrival and change. The concrete base was designed to mimic a stone, cliff edge and the steep, uplifted topography that would have been discovered at Wellington's original shoreline between Lambton Harbour and the uplifted Terrace hillside, prior to the reclamation of the land on which the inner city stands.

The bridge is adorned with non-traditional wooden sculptures carved by Matchitt out of Californian redwood grown on Matchitt's farm. These formed the balustrades, that include hidden alcoves where people could sit, huddle, and look out, down and through. Sculptures of different creatures adorn the outer edges. On one side are two whales representing the taniwha Ngake and Whātaitai, who according to the Māori creation story of Wellington Harbour, carved a path to the open sea and turned to stone and earth to rest upon the shore. On the other side are two large seagulls, said to represent welcome and festivity. Matchitt said the concept came from the fact that seagulls always seem to perch on bridges.

On top of the bridge, six tall pouwhenua point upward toward the sky, with metal shapes of stars, moons, and other symbols representing celestial navigation. These symbols reference those found on the Te Wepu flag captured by Te Kooti in 1868. Matchitt's work was influenced by Te Kooti's philosophies and he used these symbols in other sculptures as well as the bridge.

On the city side of the bridge is a split pyramid topped with pounamu (greenstone), representing Te Waipounamu (the South Island) from where Māui threw his net to fish up the North Island (Te Ika a Māui). Patterns in the brick paving represent Maui's line, fish hook and net. At the Civic Square base of the bridge are two Oamaru stone sculptures by Matt Pine, titled Prow and Capital. A plaque here states:

Capital and Prow: The sculptures by Matt Pine on either side of the stairs are part of a series of 10 works called Reflections on an Ancient Past. Capital (above) is based on European classical architectural elements with koru form on the edges. Prow (on the other side) depicts a Maori canoe prow with Taniko weave motif on the edges - a mix of European and Maori cultural elements.

• Para Matchitt poles decorated with symbols
• Whale sculptures
• Bird sculptures
• Grill-work porthole in bridge