The Hobson Street precinct is at the edge of Auckland's CBD. It has been zoned and is being developed for medium and high density inner city living. Many of buildings are exemplars of what not to do - because of poor urban design considerations and planning. Each development provides: medium/high rise building slab with a variety of apartment size, significant internalised car-parking and some exterior parking. Key failures in these clustered projects include:

• Limited provision of activated edges at pavement level for pedestrians
• Dominating requirement for car ownership and use
• Non existent open spaces and grassed areas for residents & children
• Limited pedestrian amenity in the vicinity of these buildings
• In some cases developments built too close - causing amenity problems for those living in shaded and overlooked apartments