George Street, Dunedin Retail Quarter

George Street

Regenerating Dunedin’s Retail Quarter

A people-friendly destination

Dunedin’s iconic George Street, the city’s historic retail precinct, has undergone its most significant transformation in over a generation, marking the city’s largest civic construction project in the same period. The revitalisation spans four blocks of George Street and surrounding side streets, with a new layout that prioritises pedestrians, improves accessibility and creates a distinctive, place-based identity that elevates the inner-city experience.

Driven by the need to replace aging infrastructure beneath the street, the project seized the opportunity to regenerate the city heart, incorporating upgraded pavements, street furniture, public art, and the reintroduction of nature. George Street has been redesignated from a cross-town traffic route to a pedestrian-priority, slow-traffic, one-way street. By reducing vehicular use and levelling footpaths and road surfaces, the streetscape has become a universally accessible space that invites public life and improves access to retail.

Seating options have increased tenfold, with a variety of social spaces that cater to people of all ages and abilities. Aotearoa New Zealand’s first in-street play space has been introduced, alongside areas for alfresco dining, providing businesses with new opportunities to engage with the street. Each block of George Street can be closed off with automatic bollards to host public events and performances, providing flexible use for the community. The project has also improved transport options, retaining strategically located on-street parking, improving public transport access, and adding a shared cycle path.

Greening the streetscape

One of the four design principles established in the 2019 Dunedin Central City Plan was to establish a ‘Green City’. In response, 90 street trees have been planted and 730sqm of garden beds have been introduced, transforming areas that previously had no greenery. This has led to one of the most successful biodiversity enhancements of any central city street in the country. The expansive gardens not only soften and animate the streetscape, but will also improve over time, attracting insects and native birds back into the city. The gardens also support best practice stormwater management, functioning as raingardens or passively irrigated beds that filter and manage stormwater runoff. The project restores a quality and character reflective of Dunedin’s identity as ‘one of the world’s great small cities’.

Embedding Mana Whenua values and narratives

The design has been praised for restoring the mana of the Ōtākou Rūnaka within the city, incorporating hapū values and narratives throughout. The inclusion of te reo, tohu whenua (cultural markers), native plantings, artworks, and bilingual street maps contributes to a welcoming, inclusive atmosphere. The co-design process led to the creation of a bespoke asymmetrical paver unique to Dunedin. The ‘Poti Paver’, inspired by traditional weaving techniques, was manufactured in Otago using locally sourced aggregates and white sands, making it a distinctive feature of the streetscape. The design was inspired by the meaning of Ōtepoti, with one key definition reflecting the corner weave pattern of the food basket (kete). The paving design tells local stories, connecting George Street to Ōtākou Marae through patterns representing pātiki (flounder) and aramoana (ripples in the water).