BREAKING NEWS: Get in Loser, We're Getting a New Building

Attending work meetings is one of the most soul-crushing ways that a person can spend the precious hours of their life. I was thinking about this very sentiment one morning when I had, out of lack of a better option, accompanied my mother to her workplace for the day. I guess that probably answers the question of whether I have a life. 

I was seated in the back corner of the room, not particularly listening to anything that was being said, but out of respect, trying not to look at my phone for the duration of the one hour meeting. Out of sheer boredom, I ended up zoning out while staring at the projector where a slideshow was being presented. I vaguely remember whoever was speaking talking about a potential job opportunity for the company, and when my eyes focused, there was an unfamiliar website on the screen with the letters GETS written in the top left hand corner. Before the presenter clicked on another listing, I saw the words ‘University of Auckland.’ 

In Persian, my native language, we have the word ‘foozool’ (فضول) which means nosy, and unfortunately (or fortunately) that’s exactly what I am. 

GETS, as I later found out, stands for ‘Government Electronic Tender Service’. It’s a website where public institutions such as ministries, councils or universities can post opportunities (also known as a tender) for companies to supply them with a particular service. Companies can then submit bids for that particular tender, in hopes that they will get chosen by the institution to form a contract with. 

In the search bar, I typed up ‘University of Auckland’, and it brought me a mixed list of tenders from different universities. Did I mention the website looks like it was made in 2010 and not updated since? I turned to advanced search, which promised better results and it did not disappoint. I clicked on a bunch of the listings, most of which had closed. A few tenders for catering, security systems, waste management, and… ‘B230 New Build Facade’? There were two listings using the code B230, one from 8 November 2024, and the other from the 18th of the same month. I opened both.

The first tender listed on November 8th, invited EOI’s (Expression of Interest) to be a Main Contractor, and the second tender welcomed RFP’s (Request for Proposal) for a Facade Contractor. For what exactly? 

B230, a multi-storey building set to become a future edition to our city campus.

Described on the tenders as a location for “academic accommodation, teaching spaces, and a multi-functional performing arts space,” B230 is set to be built on an existing site in the 200 sector of campus, which after inspection of the campus map, is the area behind OGGB.

Finding any mentions of this new building after gaining this information was difficult to say the least. Google searches of ‘new building’ and ‘University of Auckland’ proved to be futile, and it was only when I typed in the code, B230, that relevant links popped up. 

The first mention of the B230 building was found in the Council Agenda document from the 29th of April 2024. This document can be found on the University of Auckland's website, and revealed that the main purpose of B230, is actually to be building for Law and Performing Arts.

The project was mentioned again in another Council Agenda document from the 26th of August 2024 where it stated that by that date, the early design for the building had commenced. 

It’s also interesting to note that while both of these links showed up after my Google search of the ‘B230’ and 'University of Auckland', both links were also broken, and I had to dig through the University’s website and archive of council agenda documents to find them. 

My next piece of information came from a website that also looked completely outdated and weird, to the point where I had to google whether it was reliable. It was. FYI is a website that helps New Zealanders access official information from public institutions in Aotearoa, in order to facilitate transparency between these institutions and the public.

It was on this website where on November 14th 2024, a user named Luke had asked the University of Auckland about a proposal to join the law and business school into one faculty. In the response to the users question about what will happen to the Davis Law Library, the University had included a link to a powerpoint, stating that it would give further information. 

According to the powerpoint, the Faculty of Law is set to move to the city campus, to B230, by the end of 2029. This is due to the inability to extend the lease for the building, a fact backed up by the ‘Te Rautaki Tūāpapa, The University of Auckland Estate Strategy 2021 - 2030’ document, which says that by 2030, 94% of the University’s non-residential leases will have expired. This document also mentions the Maidment Theatre, a performing arts space that was demolished in 2016, which potentially explains the inclusion of a performing arts space in B230.

In addition to the performing arts space, B230 will also include a moot court for law students, with the one from Monash University being given as an example in the powerpoint. 

But will the flash, shiny moot court distract law students from the fact that they will no longer have their own library? In the powerpoint, it is revealed that the collection of books and services provided at the Davis Law Library will all be moved to the general library (which seems packed as it is), and therefore, a law library will not be replicated in the B230 building for law students.

This move on the University’s behalf seems slightly controversial, given the backlash that they received after shutting down specialised libraries for music, arts and architecture back in 2018, and also the Sylvia Ashton-Warner library in 2023.

Jumping back in time slightly to when I first discovered the tenders for this project on GETS, there was one tiny detail that stuck out to me. 5 Alten Road. In both tenders, it was written that 5 Alten Road was a heritage building, and needed to be refurbished as part of the B230 project. When Lewis, Craccum’s Managing Editor (who at this point was probably tired of me spamming him), sent me a picture of the address on Google Maps, my immediate reaction was: “that looks like a kindergarten." 

And it is. Well, the building next to it is.

On the timeline provided in the powerpoint, it states that in May of 2025, the site for B230 will be established, and the temporary courts and the ECE (Early Childhood Centre) building will be removed, or in harsher words, demolished.

3 Alten Road is an early childhood centre for the children of staff and students at the University so that they can be looked after during the day. The most recent review done on it in 2021 by the Education Review Office revealed that there were 42 children enrolled, and ten staff members. While these numbers may not be the same now in 2025, there will no doubt be children and staff who are going to be affected by the development of B230.

Even though the powerpoint states that construction is set to begin in August of 2025, which isn't far away, I found no information online as to where the education centre is going to be relocated to, despite it the powerpoint clearly stating it will be moved. This is information that should ideally be given to those with children at the centre sooner rather than later.

After all of this, I’m curious as to when the University is planning to officially announce the construction of B230. While I —and many of the students reading this— will have graduated long before the estimated completion date of 2029, I wonder whether, like with Hiwa, the grand opening of this building will also be overshadowed by course cuts, and staff members still striking for a living wage and salaries that meet inflation, whilst the University unveils one multi million dollar building after another. 

Anyways, I should really get a hobby.