NZ Visual Diary - entry 442

The Pullman Residences

The Pullman footprint at the corner of Waterloo Crescent and Princes Street in Auckland Central is actually two footprints. The Pullman Hotel fronts along the Waterloo Crescent thouroghfare. In my opinion, the hotel’s exterior is dull and unadorned compared to the elegance of the hotel’s interiors. The interiors are richly appointed.

Astride the Princes Street corridor of the complex are the Pullman Residences, two and three bedroom apartments available for short- and long-stay accomodations. The Princes Street facade, a detail of which is pictured here, is quite distinctive.

The cantilevered porches and roof line have been designed to express an uncluttered but maximal visual statement. The white overlapping porches produce strong contrasts of light and shadow - a dramatic interplay of tonal extremes which makes for a powerful black & white photograph.

The visual impact of the facade is further heightended by the interplay of varied lengths in the porch forms - from long and bevelled lengths on the left that approximate rectilinear shapes to porch length of subtle but increasingly shortened length as the eye moves from left to right. The irregular patterns propel the visual movement of the facade.

The capstone design element, which for me accentuates the impression that the segments are floating, is the repeating pattern of angled edges on the left-hand side of each smaller porch segment. As a design conseqence, the porch enclosures are rendered as irregular quadrilaterals. That syncopated rhythm of irregular porch forms creates a dynamic tension, an imbalance within the visual plane of the facade that further enhances the vibrant impression of movement and suspension.

Lastly, an echo of cantilevered forms can be seen in the roof line. The seductive curve of each roof segment is lovely. Again we see an interplay, and resulting tension, of opposites - the straight line that forms the left-edge of each roof segment from which a delicate curvilinear portion extends and defines the shape.

The Pullman Residences facade is a refined example of visually stunning architectural design.