Urban Transformations - The Millennium Series Part Three

All of New Zealand's cities had a blueprint for their evolution, though in virtually every case the reality and the planning never quite matched. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the century, the main centres at least – Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington - included substantial commercial and financial buildings, factories and, from around 1900 - department stores.

The late-Victorian classical/Gothic look of around 1900 would survive largely intact until the 1960s, when economic growth and modernist architecture prompted the erection of much larger office buildings. Meanwhile, increased interest in, and awareness, of public health and town planning issues saw many older houses in city centres demolished and replaced with new ferro-concrete and steel buildings.

In the mid-1980s, another period of economic growth, prompted by financial deregulation, resulted in huge mirror glassed 'corporate' towers rising up to dominate parts of the skyline. That trend was checked by the stock market crash of 1987, only to be replaced over this last decade by another - the emergence of inner city apartments.

The six stamps in this issue featured an image from the late 19th or early 20th century and a photograph of approximately the same location today. Nearly 160 years after cityscapes began in New Zealand, change is very much the only constant.

Acknowledgements

New Zealand Post gives special acknowledgements to the following for their assistance and use of historical images in this stamp issue.

• Alexander Turnbull Library
• Hocken Library
• Canterbury Museum.

Product Listing for Urban Transformation - The Millennium Series Part Three

Image	Title	Description	Price
	Single Stamp	Single 40c 'Wellington' gummed stamps. The city of Wellington was meant to be built at Petone but was moved to Lambton Harbour in 1840 because the original site was too swampy. A huge reclamation