Remembering Billy Apple Joint Project

Our 'golden section' on the 'golden mile' project. Giles, who made this fabulous model when he was a student with Architectus in Auckland, has reminded me with this image commemorating Billy's passing. A 1995 joint venture between Architecture Workshop, Architectus and OAP, we asked Billy Apple if he wanted to join us - we paid his hotel bill to stay in Wellington for two weeks and participate in our workshop design process - we interpreted the golden section ration on the Lambton Quay site. Billy often used the Fibonacci sequence in his work and the mystical 1.618 ratio - some believe it's perfect. It's a pretty good proportion to refer to though often slightly fatter than you might instinctively draw. We used it to build our architecture narrative for this competition project to test the WCC new CBD planning rules at that time. We applied the ratio to invent 'golden volumes' & stacked 7 on top of each other and thought it was meant to be when the top of our tower miraculously aligned with top stop of Wellington's cable car datum! Billy was very keen on this particular Pantone yellow for the tower. Exposure to this internationally recognised artist who had returned to his homeland, reinforced to our fledging practice the importance of benchmarking ourselves in a 'bigger pond' Vale Billy.