Strong connection points are a key to Barry Curtis Park’s success. A promenade encircles the perimeter and links clearly to the other axes, typically at community play parks and parking areas. The park’s main thoroughfare, a formal, linear promenade, is anchored at one end by the town centre and orientated at the other to the volcanic field, with varied civic and natural spaces connected along the 700-metre length. Its ceremonial entranceway faced with tree-fern logs and surrounded by a stepped, disc-like earthwork is a strong landmark.
Another key route is the Education Axis, which is framed by tall poplars and the distinctive dry-stack stone walls common to Auckland’s older parks and neighbourhoods. This axis is a softer connection, repeatedly connecting with the stream corridor and providing opportunities for people to access varied habitats and ‘signature gardens’, which blur notions of land art, park folly and garden.