
Thirty-four years ago, Spectrum producer Jack Perkins recorded his award-winning documentary capturing the life, the sounds and the personalities of Cathedral square in Christchurch. In this edition of The Vault, Deborah Nation parallels that experience with the sounds of 2011 as she is escorted through the earthquake Red Zone into the square as it is today.
The Christchurch Cathedral after loosing its tower and spire after the 6.3 quake hit Christchurch 22 February 2011. The February 22 quake cracked pillars, twisted walls, shattered stained glass, collapsed buttresses, fractured masonry and toppled the tower. The rose window in the west wall collapsed in the June aftershocks. Demolition of the Chr...
Register Record for the Press Building, 32 Cathedral Square, Christchurch
Building Record Form for Warner's Hotel, 50 Cathedral Square, Christchurch
This topic was chosen in response to the devastation caused to Cathedral Square, Christchurch, New Zealand following earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. Working amongst the demolition bought to attention questions about how to re-conceive the square within the rebuilt city. In particular, it raised questions as to how a central square could be better integrated and experienced as a contemporary addition to Christchurch city. This thesis seeks to investigate the ways in which central squares can be better integrated with the contemporary city and how New Urbanist design principles can contribute toward this union. The research principally focuses on the physical and spatial integration of the square with the contemporary city. A drawing-based analysis of select precedent case studies helped to determine early on that overall integration of the contemporary square could be attributed to several interdependent criteria. The detailed studies are supplemented further with literature-based research that narrowed the criteria to five integrative properties. These are: identity, scale and proportion, use, connectivity and natural landscape. These were synthesised, in part, from the integrative New Urbanist movement and the emerging integrative side of the more contemporary Post Urbanist movement. The literature-based research revealed that a more inclusive approach toward New Urbanist and Post Urbanist design methodologies may also produce a more integrated and contemporary square. Three design case studies, using the redesign of Cathedral Square, were undertaken to test this hypothesis. The case studies found that overall, integration was reliant on a harmonious balance between the five integrative properties, concluding that squares can be better integrated with the contemporary city. Further testing of the third concept, which embraced an allied New Urbanist / Post Urbanist approach to design, found that New Urbanism was limited in its contribution toward the integration of the square.
Building Record form for Regent Theatre Building, 39 Cathedral Square, Christchurch
Building Record Form for Dorothy's Boutique Hotel, 2 Latimer Square, Christchurch
Building Record Form for the Press Building, 32 Cathedral Square, Christchurch
Register Record for the Sevicke Jones Building, 53 Cathedral Square, Christchurch
A graphic comparing photographs of Latimer Square taken before and after the earthquakes.
Register Record for the former Lyttelton Times Building, 56 Cathedral Square, Christchurch
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Sevicke Jones Building in Cathedral Square.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Sevicke Jones Building in Cathedral Square.
Towards Square
Latimer Square
Latimer Square
Latimer Square
Register Record for Regent Theatre Building (Former Royal Exchange), 39 Cathedral Square, Christchurch
Building Record Form for the former Lyttelton Times Building, 56 Cathedral Square, Christchurch
A path between the new Cashel Mall shopping area and Cathedral Square was opened this weekend and about 1000 people have gone through every hour. It's the first time this section of city has been open to the public since the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Looking towards Square
Earlier this morning Christchurch's Cathedral Square saw its first dawn service since the earthquake in 2011. The city's Mayor Phil Mauger was there.
Dominating a once simpler Cathedral Square, are the formidable buildings – Government Life Insurance Building, the Grand Theatre, the Crystal Palace Theatre, the Reuters Telegram Company Buil…
Cathederal Square has remained largely untouched by developers since the 2011 earthquake. That is about to change, with work beginning on a series of hotels.
Photo of Cathedral Square, Christchurch taken by Paul Gofton, 6 September 2010.
‘Ice Cream Charlie’ operated a well-known ice cream cart in Cathedral Square for much of the first half of the twentieth century. He was reknowned for his friendly nature and delicious …
On the north east corner of Cathedral Square, the Commercial Hotel, owned by John Etherden Coker (1832 – 1894) was opened in 1863. The name Warner’s was not used until the hotel’s…
The Christchurch Cathedral Square showing the Anglican Cathedral after loosing its tower and spire after the 6.3 quake hit Christchurch 22 February 2011. This image also shows the remains of the very heavy snow fall we had on Monday 25 July 2011. The centre of the city is still cordoned off. This image was taken from a helicopter flight over the...
The streets are quiet – a parked car sits outside Dalgety’s, a lone tram rumbles towards the tram sheds and a tired delivery horse stands with his head bowed, eating chaff from his feed…
After World War One, there was a growing appetite for the glitzy glamour of the ‘Jazz Age’ and Hollywood. Christchurch residents were hungry to embrace American culture and its new comm…