Meet Auckland's new urban design manager

Lisa Dunshea was appointed the manager of Auckland Council’s Urban Design Unit, Plans and Places last year. Her appointment came a year after the resignation of Ludo Campbell-Reid, who served for five very successful years as general manager of Auckland Design Office. 

After months of uncertainty and consternation over what would happen with urban design in the city after Campbell-Reid’s exit, the council announced in November the restructure of the office with Dunshea as manager.

Lisa Dunshea.

LAA: Tell us a bit about your background?

LD: I’m from Newcastle in the north of England, which makes me a Geordie. Newcastle is a gritty urban city famous for its river, its Roman wall, medieval and georgian sweeping streets, and its seven bridges that connect the north and south banks of the city. The city stands on the edge of beautiful countryside of Northumberland, England border county to Scotland. Growing up in that environment, seeing the urban and rural coming together definitely developed my love for both landscape architecture and urban design and helped me to become the designer I am today.

I am a dual qualified Landscape Architect and Urban Designer with more than 25 years’ experience, with 15 of them spent in the UK working in a mix of the voluntary, public, and private sectors. 

My first role was with a national organisation called Groundwork, which specialises in community regeneration in hard hit industrial areas. We helped local communities design projects their way, it was co-design as we know it today, with all sorts of groups, businesses, schools, residents all partnering together to match central and local government funding. It included both large regeneration projects and small projects that make a big difference to a community. 

Later in my career I worked in London in a landscape design studio, working with multi-disciplinary teams on large private development projects like Reading’s Green Park development. It was good working with clients to enable them to realise their visions and take projects from concept to detail design, and then deliver projects on site, on budget and on programme. This certainly honed my project management and relationship skills. 

After completing my Masters in Urban Environmental Design in 2007, I worked as an Associate with Gillespies, a UK based urban design practice working on high profile public realm project such as Bradford Mirror Pool for Bradford City Council and Trinity Leeds Shopping Centre for Land Securities plc. I also did a lot of work on public transport developments like Nottingham Tram and Leeds Busway. That’s where I developed a passion for the importance of public space and public transport for a well-functioning city. Working with the community, public space, and public transport to get good urban design outcomes is something that I’ve been passionate in bringing into my work in New Zealand. 

When I arrived in New Zealand, I can remember having a coffee with a professional contact who sensibly suggested I gain some experience of the Resource Management Act and said the newly created Auckland Council had some great opportunities. I took their advice and I have been here for the last nine years, in various roles in design review and leading the Auckland Urban Design Panel for several years.

When I started back in 2011, The Waterview Connection was coming to life and I oversaw the many community meetings and worked closely with the Alliance design teams and led the Auckland Urban Design Panel discussions. It was important to ensure the new infrastructure and community assets were delivered to a high quality and the community, who felt divided by the new road and infrastructure, were involved in the designs for the area.

LAA: How are you settling into your new role at the Urban Design Unit? 

LD: All organisations go through change, particularly in the current environment. Auckland Council is no different and the ADO is now the Urban Design Unit. We’re a unit within Plans and Places, which sits in the Chief Planning Office division. While we’re a bit smaller in size, we are essentially the same talented design team. It’s busy and the Urban Design Unit are in demand – we’re not short of work! 

My role is about leading from the front, setting the strategy direction, working with my team leaders to establish priorities and support our people as we integrate into Plans and Places. We already worked with Plans and Places on a regular basis, so it was quite a natural fit. What has been great is that our design team culture is strong, and it is shaping and influencing our path ahead which is exciting!  It’s about reading the changing context and helping navigate the way forward for urban, landscape and cultural design in a growing city and supporting our politicians and decision makers with our best advice.

Leading the team draws on my creative desire to think differently in a strategic business sense, developing and positioning the team to be at the table, always working with others, and serving our communities to create better environments.

The Urban Design Unit out and about in Tāmaki Makaurau, gaining knowledge and understanding around our cultural narratives.

LAA: For those that don’t know, what is Plans and Places? 

LD: Plans and Places are charged with looking after the Unitary Plan, developing policy, and shaping the spatial design of the city. It is a good fit for us, as design plays a key part and helps inform the strategic direction. It’s good to sit alongside our Heritage Team and our City Centre planners, for example.

LAA: What are you hoping to achieve for the city? 

LD: Design and people are at the heart of what we do, and if I was to summarise it there are three key things: 

The first is to see and understand our cultural identity, the whenua that we are on here in Tāmaki Makaurau and let that form the foundation for our work. This means that Māori design is front and centre. This is about the people, processes, and outcomes and how we are influencing from within our own organisation and working with others to move Auckland to Tāmaki Makaurau.

The second thing is to ensure we have a vibrant, accessible and a people focussed city centre at the heart of Tāmaki Makaurau. The City Centre Masterplan leads the way here. We are well into the delivery phase, and we’re working with the many stakeholders to make that vision a reality. The health and wellbeing of our city and the entire region are all inter-connected and we need to respond to the changing needs of the people who call Tāmaki Makaurau home.

The third thing is how we build strong relationships and support those within Auckland’s development community. We can’t change and develop the city by ourselves; we can help lead the way in certain areas, but we need support from the rest of the development community to ensure we all achieve the best quality design for our city. This means supporting both small and large-scale development, nurturing the new developers to build quality infill housing, and helping larger/ international developers deliver new transformational buildings that set the design quality bar New Zealand and beyond.

LAA: Why are you the right person to continue to lead the design vision?

LD: I’m a designer and creative first and foremost - I had a year at Art College and was encouraged to continue - but I also have practical business and project design skills to lead a vision to delivery. 

We are in change, change requires a vision, we have a vision and now it’s about working with colleagues to realise and deliver the vision. It is about working with others and drawing on their expertise and skills and working collaboratively is vital to any design vision, so this is when my people skills come into their own, working with others, developing strong well-founded relationships, and doing the mahi is what I am about.

LAA: What reassurances have you got for those in the design profession who are concerned the Urban Design Unit won't have the influence it used to have?

LD: As is evident from the exciting work going on in the city centre and across the region, Auckland is growing and changing. The Urban Design Unit will continue to play an essential role in this process by working more closely with those delivering the vision. I believe that by working more closely with our customers and colleagues we will have more influence on design outcomes.

We know good design matters whether you are a university student walking through a shared space, a child enjoying a new play in Waterview, or a family living in a new master planned housing development. To help raise the design quality bar, the power to influence is driven by a variety of voices across the design profession. Talking recently with other external design leaders, influence may look and feel different, as the leadership may look and feel different. The direction I see, points towards a collective voice, and it is the collective voice that carries more influence than ever.

I have been fortunate enough to have a career where I have been able to use my design skills, my relationship, leadership, and commercial understanding skills in a variety of public and private sector roles. Going forward I see these elements – design, relationships, leadership, and commercial awareness being key to ensuring good design as a key component in the development of a vibrant, diverse, sustainable, and successful city. 

LAA: It's been a challenging year for everyone, how much do you think the impacts of COVID-19 will affect the development of the city centre?

LD: COVID-19 has posed a significant challenge for everyone, plus there’s a lot of change and disruption - it’s tough. It’s going to take a while but I’m confident that the city centre will emerge stronger as a more people focussed city centre. There will be new CRL stations, more mixed-use developments, and attractive streetscapes vibrant with city life. 

Private investment will play a key part and as market confidence returns, the stage will be set for businesses, offices, universities, shops, and cafes to host people coming together in even greater numbers. We’ll see people enjoying a city centre - celebrating cultural narratives, accessibility for all, more green space with cleaner air, better walking, cycling, public transport as well as innovative new transport options. 

The more we have a city centre that people want to be in, that creates a resilient place, and that resilience sets the city and the people for the next challenge which is the impacts, and opportunities presented by climate change.