Drop everything! You need to see this iMax video!
Some essential viewing for anyone addicted to this saga...
Good morning and happy Thursday! Thanks for your feedback about the demon cat - I’m seriously considering your helpful suggestions. Today, I’m back to business, and we’re going to focus on one reporter’s work on the iMax building. It’s a thoroughly entertaining piece of journalism that deserves your full attention. Let’s go...
Zac Fleming is in New York, where he recently relocated to work as a producer for CBS. It’s just after 7am in America, he’s only recently woken up, and he’s discussing the iMax building with me.
It’s nearly midnight in New Zealand. We both yawn. “You think it’s just a story about a building,” he says. “How horrible can it be?”
I wanted to talk to Zac about his experiences covering the Sky World Entertainment Centre for several months in 2017, when Radio NZ’s Checkpoint show revealed the building hadn’t had a Warrant of Fitness for months. Thanks to issues with fire safety, human smoke alarms - real people! - were positioned in the food court, and in every cinema, until it was sorted. It cost $15,000 a day.
But Fleming’s story is so much more than that. Over three months of work, he pieced together one of the most complete pictures of everything that was going on under the roof of 291-297 Queen Street at that time: angry contractors, pissed off tenants, and a floundering Auckland Council. It also includes allegations of death threats.
Fleming tried, and tried, and tried again to talk to the building’s owner, James Kwak, but he never got to interview him. I found myself relating to this segment while I tried multiple times and multiple ways to talk to him too.
Kwak does, however, make a cameo appearance in Zac’s impressive video report. So, set aside 14 minutes to sit through his masterpiece that’s kicked off by then-Checkpoint presenter John Campbell. It’s seriously well written, contains deep layers of journalism, reveals emails obtained using the OIA, and many, many WTF? moments.
Grab a coffee, relax and enjoy this. We can talk about it afterwards …
So many things stand out to me in Zac’s report, but here are my favourite bits …
This was filmed 3.5 years ago, and the Sky World Entertainment Centre is busy. Radio NZ’s shots in the bustling food court are shocking to me because, right now, everything in there is empty. Visit it today and you’ll see random people eating their own snacks, playing cards, or just escaping the wintry weather outside. Most of the chairs are on tables. You can’t get a cup of coffee.
The fire safety situation at the end of 2017 was serious. “In the event of fire, injury or death to any persons in the building or to persons on other property is likely.” Injury? Death? Likely? Those fire safety issues have since been resolved, but the building’s WOF runs out in two months and it will need rechecking then.
At 8 minutes and 20 seconds, Auckland Council has a super awkward moment. At 9.30, a JNJ Management staff member called Martin has his own super awkward moment. I love how awkward everyone is in this.
At 9.50, it gets awkward again. Fleming approaches James Kwak on the top floor of the iMax building, just as he’s emerged from his top-floor office. He asks him if he’s James Kwak. Kwak says no. Fleming tries to talk to him, but Kwak steps onto an escalator, and escapes.
Hold on to your seats for the end, as former contractor Calvin Clapperton alleges he received a death threat. He took it to the police. “I wouldn’t have made the complaint,” he says, “if I didn’t think it was serious.”
NB: Zac filed this report in November, 2017, and never got the chance to speak to James Kwak. Yet, somehow, he ended up on his Christmas card list…
All of this is background for my latest update on the iMax building. It’s a lengthy deep-dive into the controversial Auckland building’s origins, how it got into the state it’s in, and what the future holds. In it, I talk to the building’s original architect, Ashley Allen, and attempt to talk to Kwak. I ask tenants about their experience in the building, talk to staff about their issues working there, and journalists about their experiences covering the same story.
It’s the biggest feature I’ve ever worked on, involving dozens of interviews, both on and off the record, as well as a crazy Saturday night spent in the building’s foyer, where I spoke to many people who are just as obsessed as I am about the place. While I was there, I saw the decay in motion - I watched vandals absolutely tear apart an abandoned food outlet.
All of this is in the latest Metro magazine, which will be in letterboxes and stores today. Why Metro? It’s my favourite local magazine, one we nearly lost for good when Bauer closed its New Zealand office during lockdown last year.
Guided by Henry Oliver, Metro’s back and it’s looking absolutely brilliant, a smart, super-chunky, brilliantly-designed magazine destined to live on coffee tables and bookshelves for years. You should subscribe!
The iMax series so far…
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