Majestic Square Redevelopment

Majestic Square - Festival of Cultures 2019

Thanks to those who gave feedback on this initial consultation, which has now closed. 

Mainstreet Whanganui and Whanganui District Council's Town Centre Regeneration Committee in late 2019 asked for ideas from the community on the redevelopment of Majestic Square.

In 2015 internationally-renowned urban design company Urbanismplus Ltd was contracted to engage with the community to develop a plan to regenerate Whanganui’s town centre. As part of this process they consulted with a broad range of groups including the Whanganui District Council, local iwi representatives, businesses and the wider community.

Majestic Square was one of the focal points of this process, as it is the heart of Whanganui’s town centre. Urbanismplus looked at the history of the space and the ways it was currently used. They found that the space could be redesigned to make it much more functional for both events and as a central city community gathering space. From this, they developed a preliminary design(PDF, 2MB) that remedied some of the Square’s current limitations.

The preliminary design includes reinstating the view from Cooks Gardens to the Sarjeant Gallery, adding grassed terraces to act as informal seating during events, integrating the existing water feature into the steps and creating a children’s water play area.

This design is not the final design but provided a good starting point for a renewed conversation with the community about the design of the Square.

Feedback

Feedback was gathered at a series of public events and through a feedback form.