This will open up the street to the Avon River
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Westpac Bank (left), Grant Thornton building (white right of the Westpac in the distance), ANZ Bank (white with vertical stripes below the Grant Thornton), and Holiday Inn (right) all under demolition".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "This building labelled Poplar Crescent was one of a group of buildings paid for by Thomas Edmonds and was initially used to store band instruments when the Edmonds Rotunda was used for band concerts. Cambridge Terrace".
A photograph taken from the top of the BNZ building. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The MFL Building has reached a very ugly stage of demolition. It is the last building standing on the corner of Gloucester and Colombo Streets".
A video of Dr Ann McEwan, architectural historian and heritage consultant, talking about the architectural details and significance of heritage buildings in Christchurch. The video includes discussion of the Provincial Chambers buildings, the MedLab building, and Eliza's Manor.
A photograph of a model of a WikiHouse building on display in the CPSA building at CPIT. A demonstration and hands-on building workshop, titled Go Ahead... Make Your Space, was held at CPIT as part of FESTA 2013.
A photograph of the base pieces of a WikiHouse building in the CPSA building at CPIT. A demonstration and hands-on building workshop, titled Go Ahead... Make Your Space, was held at CPIT as part of FESTA 2013.
A photograph taken from a cleared site between Struthers Lane and Lichfield Street, of damaged buildings and vacant building sites across the road on Lichfield Street. In the distance are High Street buildings and the old Post Office building (now housing C1 Espresso).
A photograph of the Brannigans Building on the corner of Gloucester Street and Oxford Terrace. Broken glass litters the footpath in front of the building. An excavator is parked in front. Emergency tape has been draped around the building as a cordon.
A photograph looking south down Manchester Street from the intersection of Gloucester Street. Bricks from an earthquake-damaged building cover the footpath. Wire fences have been placed around the building as a cordon. The SBS building can be seen in the distance.
A damaged building on Riccarton Road near Deans Avenue. The front wall of the building has crumbled onto the footpath in front. Wire fencing and road cones have been placed around the building as a cordon. Flowers on the fence suggest that somebody lost their life in this building.
A photograph taken from a cleared site between Struthers Lane and Lichfield Street, of damaged buildings and vacant building sites across the road on Lichfield Street. High Street buildings and the old Post Office building (now housing C1 Espresso) can be seen in the distance.
A photograph taken from a cleared site between Struthers Lane and Lichfield Street, of damaged buildings and vacant building sites across the road on Lichfield Street. In the distance are High Street buildings and the old Post Office building (now housing C1 Espresso).
Damage to the Clarendon Tower building.
Fences around the CTV building site.
Demolished building materials behind Harvey Norman.
Damage to building on Colombo Street.
Partially-demolished building on Colombo Street.
Deconstruction of the Forsyth Barr building.
In the late 1960s the Wellington City Council surveyed all the commercial buildings in the city and marked nearly 200 as earthquake prone. The owners were given 15 years to either strengthen or demolish their buildings. The end result was mass demolition throughout the seventies and eighties.¹ Prompted by the Christchurch earthquakes, once again the council has published a list of over 630 earthquake prone buildings that need to be strengthened or demolished by 2030.²Of these earthquake prone buildings, the majority were built between 1880 and 1930, with 125 buildings appearing on the Wellington City Council Heritage Building List.³ This list accounts for a significant proportion of character buildings in the city. There is a danger that the aesthetic integrity of our city will be further damaged due to the urgent need to strengthen these buildings. Many of the building owners are resistant because of the high cost. By adapting these buildings to house co-workspaces, we can gain more than just the retention of the building’s heritage. The seismic upgrade provides the opportunity for the office space to be redesigned to suit changes in the ways we work. Through a design-based research approach this thesis proposes a framework that clarifies the process of adapting Wellington’s earthquake prone heritage buildings to accommodate co-working. This framework deals with the key concepts of program, structure and heritage. The framework is tested on one of Wellington’s earthquake prone heritage buildings, the Wellington Working Men’s Club, in order to demonstrate what can be gained from this strengthening process. ¹ Reid, J., “Hometown Boomtown,” in NZ On Screen (Wellington, 1983). ² Wellington City Council, List of Earthquake Prone Buildings as at 06/03/2017. (Wellington: Absolutely Positively Wellington. 2017). ³ ibid.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The Cotter & Co. Building on High Street which has survived the earthquakes even though all the buildings around it have been demolished.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The Forsyth Barr building at 764 Colombo Street (left) and 779 Colombo Street (right)".
Smoke billowing from the remains of the collapsed Canterbury Television Building on Madras Street. Below, emergency personnel can be seen searching the rubble for trapped people.
A New Zealand Fire Service personnel member at the site of the collapsed Canterbury Television Building on Madras Street, holding a can of "V" energy drink.
A photograph of a block of earthquake-damaged buildings on Manchester Street. The walls of the Westende Jewellers Building on the right have crumbled, exposing the second storey rooms.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Isaac House, also known as the National Bank building at 779 Colombo Street".
The Canterbury Provincial Council buildings on Durham Street. The word "Clear" has been spray painted on one section of the building in pink spray paint.
People will be told by Christmas if they are in unsafe buildings that have the same flaw as the CTV building, which collapsed killing 115 people in the Christchurch earthquake.
The reality of just how many historic buildings will be lost to the Christchurch earthquake is now becoming apparent with Civil Defence adding another 123 buildings to the demolition list.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The BNZ building on Armagh Street and the PWC building reflected in the Avon River".