Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "PriceWaterhouseCoopers Building (under demolition, lower centre), Clarendon Tower (under demolition upper centre), New Regent Street (lower left) and New Press building at the left end of New Regent Street".
File reference: CCL-2012-02-22-IMG_9693 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 18 August 2012.
Page 5 of Section A of the South Island edition of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 18 August 2012.
A video of a tour of the Christchurch central city Red Zone. The video includes footage of Cambridge Terrace, the Copthorne Hotel on Colombo Street, Gloucester Street, the Government Life Building in Cathedral Square, the Grant Thornton Building in Cathedral Square, the ChristChurch Cathedral, the new Press Building on Gloucester Street, the Design and Arts College building on Worcester Street, the new Westende Jewellers Building, Hereford Street, the Westpac Trust Building, the BNZ Building, the Holiday Inn, Lichfield Street, High Street, and Cathedral Junction.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The Westende building on the corner of Worcester and Manchester Streets is one of the first new buildings".
Page 2 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Friday 10 February 2012.
Page 5 of Section A of the Christchurch edition of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 18 August 2012.
A video of the demolition of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Building, recorded inside the building.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The new Westende Jewellers building on the corner of Manchester and Worcester Streets. The former building collapsed in the 4 September 2010 earthquake".
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Friday 7 September 2012.
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 11 December 2012.
An aerial photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "CBD, New Regent Street (lower left), Cathedral Square (left centre) and Provincial Council Chambers (right centre)".
A video of Press journalist Martin Van Beynen talking about the Canterbury Television Building which collapsed during the 22 February 2011 earthquake. Beynen investigates the construction manager of the building, Gerald Shirtcliff, who allegedly faked an engineering degree and stole the identity of an engineer he knew in South Africa. The video also includes footage of Shirtcliff giving evidence about the CTV Building at the Canterbury Earthquake Royal Commission.
Page 2 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 25 July 2012.
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Thursday 16 February 2012.
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Thursday 26 July 2012.
An inquiry ordered by the Government has found the CTV building which failed massively in the February Christchurch earthquake did not meet building standards when it was constructed in 1986.
The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority says the language describing building safety is unhelpful and is worrying people needlessly. The Authority's CEO, Roger Sutton, joins the programme.
Page 5 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Friday 10 August 2012.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 22 February 2012.
A video of a tour of the new Press Building on Gloucester Street.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The new Press building at 156 Gloucester Street".
Page 2 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Thursday 19 January 2012.
Page 2 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 18 January 2012.
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Friday 17 August 2012.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The Chalice in Cathedral Square with the BNZ Building in the background. A shiny new crane is being used to deconstruct the BNZ building".
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 12 December 2012.
"Heritage Buildings, Earthquake Strengthening and Damage: the Canterbury earthquakes September 2010 - January 2012", a report submitted by the then New Zealand Historic Places Trust to the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission. The report was written by Robert McClean.
The demand for a new approach to safeguarding New Zealand’s endangered historic buildings was identified as a result of the recent increase in building code and strengthening requirements following the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010-2011. The Wellington City Council identified 266 heritage buildings in the city that must be either strengthened or demolished to address these increased requirements. This thesis explores this threat as an opportunity for researching how contemporary design interventions can be challenged to both strengthen and become active participants in the ongoing history of New Zealand’s potentially endangered historic buildings. This thesis challenges the current approach of completely ‘restoring’ 19th-20th century historic buildings in New Zealand, to develop techniques that structurally reinforce historic buildings while inviting the progressive weathering of a building to remain as a testament to its history. This thesis proposes a structural intervention that is responsive to the progressive history of historic buildings, simultaneously introducing a contemporary structural intervention that both participates in and compliments the progressive historic transformations of the vehicle. This thesis argues that current historic buildings in semi-decayed states in fact enable visitors to witness multiple stages in the life of a building, while fully restored buildings only enable visitors to witness the original form of the building. This thesis proposes a model for contemporary intervention within historic buildings that draws a design intervention from seismic strengthening.The notion of layering is explored as a design approach to incorporate the contemporary with the historic as an additional layer of exposed on-going history, thereby further exposing the layers of history evident within New Zealand’s historic buildings. This thesis combines layering theories of architects Louis Kahn and Carlo Scarpa with related theories of installation artist Mary Miss. The theoretical imperatives of Scarpa and Kahn are explored as a tool of engagement for the junction between the contemporary and historic building materials, and the work of Marry Miss is explored as a design approach for developing a contemporary intervention that references the layered historic building while inviting new means of occupancy between layers. The selected vehicle for the design research investigation is the Albemarle Hotel on Ghuznee Street in Wellington. The techniques proposed in this thesis to strengthen the Albemarle Hotel suggest an approach that might be applied to New Zealand’s wider body of historic buildings that constitute New Zealand’s heritage fabric, ultimately protecting them from demolition while preserving additional layers of their historic narratives. Over all the design research experiments suggest that contemporary interventions derived from structural strengthening may be a viable and cost-effective method of re-inhabiting New Zealand’s endangered heritage buildings, avoiding demolition and securing New Zealand’s heritage for future generations. Research Questions: This thesis challenges the current economically unsustainable approach of laterally reinforcing and completely ‘restoring’ 19th-20th century historic buildings in New Zealand. This thesis argues that current historic buildings in semi-decayed states in fact enable visitors to witness multiple stages in the on-going life of a building. Can the weathered state of New Zealand's heritage buildings be proactively retained and celebrated as witnesses to their history? Can new lateral reinforcing requirements be conceived as active participants in revealing the on-going history of New Zealand's historic buildings?