The Auckland Ferry Terminal, sometimes called the Downtown Ferry Terminal, is the hub of the Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

 ferry network that connects Auckland City

Auckland City

Auckland City was the city and local authority covering the Auckland isthmus and most of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, in the North Island of New Zealand. On 1 November 2010 it was amalgamated into the wider Auckland Region under the authority of the new Auckland Council...

 with North Shore City and some locations in Waitakere City and Manukau City. The ferry terminal is in the Auckland CBD

Auckland CBD

The Auckland CBD is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. Bounded by several major motorways and by the harbour coastline in the north, it is surrounded further out by mostly suburban areas...

 on the Auckland waterfront

Auckland waterfront

The Auckland waterfront is a city-side stretch of the southern Waitemata Harbour coastline in Auckland City, New Zealand...

. It is at the north end of Queen Street

Queen Street, Auckland

Queen Street is the major commercial thoroughfare in the Auckland CBD, Auckland, New Zealand's main population centre. It starts at Queens Wharf on the Auckland waterfront, adjacent to the Britomart Transport Centre and the Downtown Ferry Terminal, and runs uphill for almost three kilometres in a...

, opposite the Britomart Transport Centre

Britomart Transport Centre

Britomart Transport Centre is the CBD public transport hub of Auckland, New Zealand, and the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk line. It combines a bus interchange with a railway station in a former Edwardian post office, extended with expansive post-modernist architectural elements...

, which is the hub for local buses and trains.

Facilities

The ferry terminal is composed of two main elements, with an older, yellow Edwardian Baroque

Edwardian Baroque architecture

The term Edwardian Baroque refers to the Neo-Baroque architectural style of many public buildings built in the British Empire during the Edwardian era ....

 building facing Queen Street and the city side, while the newer wharves and waiting area building (the actual ferry terminal of today) face the Waitemata Harbour

Waitemata Harbour

The quite famous Waitemata Harbour is the main access by sea to Auckland, New Zealand. For this reason it is often referred to as Auckland Harbour, despite the fact that it is only one of two harbours surrounding the city, and is crossed by the Auckland Harbour Bridge. The Waitemata forms the north...

.

Old building

The building usually referred to as the Auckland Ferry Terminal was designed by Alex Wiseman, and built by Philcox and Sons. Completed in 1912 on reclaimed land

Land reclamation

Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...

 out of sandstone and brick with a base of Coromandel

Coromandel Peninsula

The Coromandel Peninsula lies in the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of the Waikato Region and Thames-Coromandel District and extends 85 kilometres north from the western end of the Bay of Plenty, forming a natural barrier to protect the Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames in the west...

 granite, it cost ₤67,944 to construct, a large sum for the day.

Since 1982, it has had a Category I classification with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust

New Zealand Historic Places Trust

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust is a non-profit trust that advocates for the protection of ancestral sites and heritage buildings in New Zealand...

, and was extensively restored between 1986 and 1988. It now contains shops and cafes on the lower level, with most ferry operations moved to the new building.

New building

The more contemporary ferry piers and waiting area were constructed mostly as an open-sided structure with a curved seagull/sail-roof, which together with ornamental "smokestack" turrets is designed to evoke ships berthed behind the original building. It also needed to be of a low profile to retain building views, and was designed by architect Murray Day to be easily maintainable and expandable.

Major remedial work

In 2009-2010, ARTA is doing major remedial work on the wharf structure, which has not had such work done since construction. The initial works found some parts of the structure in worse shape than expected, as saltwater had slowly infiltrated the reinforced concrete. Initial urgent works are expected to finish in 2009.

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