World First: Podcasting 192m Up the Sky Tower With the Man Who Designed It
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Why did Gordon Moller say “why not?” to recording a podcast 192 m above the Sky Tower?
Hello and welcome to a world first! It's the Dom Harvey Podcast live outside Auckland Sky Tower for the AJ Hackett Skyride. Um we've been building up to this for the oh no not yet, no yet! We've been building up to this for the last couple of weeks. It's been months in the planning, and I now have the pleasure of revealing my very special guest for this World First podcast, 86 year old Gordon Moller. G'day Gordon. Hello, how are you? Good. First of all, um who is Gordon Moller according to Gordon Moller? Oh well I'm
I'm just uh you know, a a regular dude that's uh goes round the place but I quite like designing buildings and having fun and having lots of friends and all those sorts of things, you know.
Yeah, um we're gonna get into the um um significance of of exactly who you are and why you were my very first pick to be a guest on this podcast. But f first of all I wanna know, um so I I emailed you out of the blue maybe two, three months ago. So you you wake up on a Saturday or Sunday morning, you get a cold email from a stranger asking an eighty six year old man to hang outside a building at a hundred and ninety two metres. What what was your first thought?
Well I thought why not? You know, you've got a great podcast and it's a fantastic building that we've been involved with for a long period of time since we started designing it in nineteen ninety three and ninety four. So I thought, well why not?
Did um did anyone try and talk you out a bit what about your wife, your kids? Did No, no, they
all thought it was a great idea. Did they?
Yeah. Can I I can I just say, um, so I've got to since I reached out to you, y you got back to me, I thought the likelihood of you doing this was was very, very slim. I didn't know yeah, what sort of um shape you were in health wise. Yeah. Um I didn't know if you had the appetite for doing something like this. Um but you said yes and I've been I've been just so inspired, can I say? Like I'm I'm fifty-three years old, so I'm probably about the same age as what you are when you designed this building. That's right. We're about to go up.
Yeah.
First of all, I like I hope I'm lucky enough to be alive at eighty-six years old, because it's not a given. Not everyone makes it to that age. Uh secondly if I am, uh like I hope I'm still as active and as um vibrant and vital as what you are. And um and I think that I know the answer to this one, it's probably a no, but I'd like to think I'm still saying yes to things like this, if I'm alive at that age.
Yeah, I think you are. You're looking you're looking pretty, Chris. Anyway, I'd have to say at five o'clock this morning I thought, what am I doing today? Oh yeah, that's right. Is this a good idea, I thought to myself.
Oh did you wake up and had to remind yourself you were d no, I see I I haven't
slept well for the last year. Just to remind myself, just to remind myself whether I should be doing it as well. Yeah. Well yeah, why did you say yes? Well, because I just thought it uh it's a great project and I and I thought uh I've climbed I climbed to the top of the mast when we finished the tower, right at the very top, and that was amazing and I'd never do that again. You couldn't anyway. And I thought well it'd be fun to do this and see what it's like.
Yeah, so this building that we're about to go up, which um I mean everyone in New Zealand it's New Zealand's most iconic building, I think. Um, this is your baby. Yes, that's right.
Right, well it was a it was a combination of a whole series of people, not just me, but it was the architects and the engineers became who did a wonderful job working with Sky City. They were a terrific client to work with. They had this vision of creating a tower that you could go up and see the two harbours and experience the isthmus of Auckland, and also a tourist facility and a communications facility. So it was a whole series of great ideas. don't you don't get to design a tower very often. I mean we do lots and lots of different types of projects from everything from very small to very large so this was just quite unique and it was fun to do it.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did Gordon Moller say “why not?” to recording a podcast 192 m above the Sky Tower?
0:00–4:21
2
What was the original brief and vision for Auckland’s Sky Tower in the early‑1990s?
4:21–9:04
3
How did engineers overcome the wind and height challenges when building the Sky Tower?
9:04–12:16
4
What design features make the Sky Tower a landmark for tourists, communications and the city’s identity?
12:16–14:52
5
How does Gordon Moller keep his creative practice alive at 86 years old?
14:52–19:15
6
What other iconic projects has Gordon designed and what lessons did they teach him?
19:15–23:45
7
How does Gordon’s “why not?” attitude influence his outlook on aging and risk?
23:45–27:53
8
What does it feel like to see a building you designed become an enduring part of a city’s culture?
27:53–30:24
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Dom Harvey Podcast
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