Kettle's initial plan may have been for the entire area within Moray Place to be a public reserve. This did not come to pass, and it was only through Kettle's direct intervention that the central part of the Octagon itself was not built on. As it is, the buildings between Moray Place and The Octagon include many of Dunedin's most prominent structures, and - though it may not have been Kettle's original intention - the concentric octagons of Moray Place and The Octagon are now undeniably the city's centre.