Chemist Warehouse & Why we can't let our exteriors become giant billboards

Walk down almost any New Zealand main street and you will find a building that has disappeared behind its tenant. The windows are filmed over, the cornice is painted out, and the whole facade has become one enormous advertisement.

A building is not a billboard

Retail chains have every right to be seen. But there is a difference between a sign on a shopfront and a building wrapped in brand colours from footpath to roofline. The first tells you what is inside. The second erases the architecture that gave the street its character.

On a historic main street the effect is immediate. The building stops being part of the street and starts looking like part of a retail park.

A business can be seen without erasing the building it trades from.

The fix is simple

Councils already control signage. They should use that power to limit signs to a share of each facade, keep them within the shopfront, and stop original features being painted over or covered.

Brands would still trade on our main streets. They would just do it inside buildings that are allowed to look like buildings.