Celebrating success at the Property Council New Zealand Awards

It was a night of celebrating innovation and excellence as the New Zealand property industry gathered at the new New Zealand International Convention Centre in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland for the 2026 Property Council New Zealand Awards. The awards span a wide range of sectors and honour projects that create long-term value and elevate the communities they serve.

The judges praised the project as among the country’s most significant tourism investments this century, rising resiliently from extraordinary complexity and a catastrophic fire to stand as a bold symbol of ambition and long-term growth. The building’s design and public-facing spaces create what judges described as a memorable “New Zealand Inc” experience for visitors.

Boffa Miskell was also the lead landscape architect for the New Zealand International Convention Centre site and surrounding streetscape upgrades. A primary design objective was to ensure the buildings engage outwardly with the city, activating streets and public spaces rather than turning inward as is typical of convention centres. Coordinated design of the built form, ground-floor activities, access, and streetscape delivers a new east–west laneway and arrival plaza that enrich public life across the city block and strengthen pedestrian connections.

“It had to meet exceptionally high-performance requirements, but it also needed to feel appropriate to the role it plays in New Zealand’s civic landscape. The result is a building of real discipline. It is secure, resilient and highly specialised, yet still connected to place, culture and public life.” said the judges.

The Heke Rua Archives plaza co-designed by Boffa Miskell and Tīhei (Rangi Kipa), expresses narratives of occupation, cultivation and coastal ecology through form, materiality and planting. Timber terraces evoke rocky outcrops, while sculptural wind screens incorporate layered textures referencing midden deposits of shell and earth. Undulating surfaces reference kūmara mounds, inviting occupation and play while reinforcing historical land use. 

The judge's citation noted that the project was delivered following a five-month resource consent delay. In response, the team adopted a staged construction and handover strategy, coordinated through a live programme with key subcontractors. This approach helped mitigate subsequent delays and protect the original completion date.

IKEA Auckland is located just outside the existing Sylvia Park shopping centre. Unique features, including a watercourse and linear stormwater culvert and a significant number of mature trees, presented the opportunity to provide better pedestrian connections for those who visit, work and dwell in the area. The Boffa Miskell design team provided a high-quality landscape environment that holds visual interest, celebrating the natural assets found on site, allowing movement to occur throughout the property with the help of access and arrival nodes.

Parakiore Recreation and Sport Centre sits within the takiwā of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, with Ngāi Tahu recognised as a strategic partner in the Christchurch recovery context. Ongoing collaboration with Matapopore, Ngāi Tūāhuriri and Ngāi Tahu helped shape Boffa Miskell's landscape response grounded in kaitiakitanga, wai, mahinga kai and the wider cultural landscape of Ōtautahi Christchurch. These values informed the design narrative for the then-Metro Sports Facility and were carried through into the public realm, planting, water systems and site-scale structuring of Parakiore.

Boffa Miskell grounded the Community Lane landscape masterplan in Avondale’s cultural and ecological context, drawing on Te Awa Whau | Whau River and the Pātiki motif as an embedded narrative rather than applied decoration. The approach layers meaning into everyday experience through subtle patterning, route geometry and material articulation that references weaving, confluence, and abundance at a human scale.