Photos taken in Spreydon Library on April 15 following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-08-Spreydon-After-The-Earthquake-IMG_0465 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Spreydon Library on April 15 following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-08-Spreydon-After-The-Earthquake-IMG_0472 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Spreydon Library on April 15 following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-08-Spreydon-After-The-Earthquake-IMG_0471 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The old Sydenham post office corner Colombo and Brougham Streets".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The old Post Office in Cathedral Square".
A photograph of a postal worker delivering mail on a street with damaged houses. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "Redcliffs and Sumner".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The Grant Thornton building in Cathedral Square. The owners and insurers are still trying to decide what is happening to it".
Cracking around the lamp post at the north end of Cranmer Square. In the background, crowds of people are standing around the square, where they evacuated to after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Old Post Office, Norwich Quay".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Post Office, Hereford Street".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Old Post Office, Cathedral Square".
Currently there is a worldwide renaissance in timber building design. At the University of Canterbury, new structural systems for commercial multistorey timber buildings have been under development since 2005. These systems incorporate large timber sections connected by high strength post-tensioning tendons, and timber-concrete composite floor systems, and aim to compete with existing structural systems in terms of cost, constructability, operational and seismic performance. The development of post-tensioned timber systems has created a need for improved lateral force design approaches for timber buildings. Current code provisions for seismic design are based on the strength of the structure, and do not adequately account for its deformation. Because timber buildings are often governed by deflection, rather than strength, this can lead to the exceedence of design displacement limitations imposed by New Zealand codes. Therefore, accurate modeling approaches which define both the strength and deformation of post-tensioned timber buildings are required. Furthermore, experimental testing is required to verify the accuracy of these models. This thesis focuses on the development and experimental verification of modeling approaches for the lateral force design of post-tensioned timber frame and wall buildings. The experimentation consisted of uni-direcitonal and bi-directional quasi-static earthquake simulation on a two-thirds scale, two-storey post-tensioned timber frame and wall building with timber-concrete composite floors. The building was subjected to lateral drifts of up to 3% and demonstrated excellent seismic performance, exhibiting little damage. The building was instrumented and analyzed, providing data for the calibration of analytical and numerical models. Analytical and numerical models were developed for frame, wall and floor systems that account for significant deformation components. The models predicted the strength of the structural systems for a given design performance level. The static responses predicted by the models were compared with both experimental data and finite element models to evaluate their accuracy. The frame, wall and floor models were then incorporated into an existing lateral force design procedure known as displacement-based design and used to design several frame and wall structural systems. Predictions of key engineering demand parameters, such as displacement, drift, interstorey shear, interstorey moment and floor accelerations, were compared with the results of dynamic time-history analysis. It was concluded that the numerical and analytical models, presented in this thesis, are a sound basis for determining the lateral response of post-tensioned timber buildings. However, future research is required to further verify and improve these prediction models.
A blog post from US Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, David Huebner, titled, "Dealing with Post-Quake Stress".
A pdf copy of a post from the One Voice Te Reo Kotahi blog. The post is titled, "Email to Registry".
A lamp post in the centre of Cranmer Square. The top of the lamp post has bent during the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
A view across Norwich Quay in Lyttelton showing the historic Post Office building and Forbes' Store. Masonry has fallen from the walls of both buildings and the awning of Forbes' Store has collapsed.
The former Post Office on the corner of Oxford Street and Norwich Quay with wire fencing around the building.
Felled trees near the Park Terrace bridge in Hagley Park. A lamp post to the left is on a noticeable lean.
Felled trees near the Park Terrace bridge in Hagley Park. A lamp post in the centre of the photo is on a noticeable lean.
A photograph of a man climbing a tree in Hagley Park. In the background, a lamp post has a noticeable lean. Behind that, the structure of a large marquee can be seen.
Felled trees near the Park Terrace bridge in Hagley Park. A lamp post to the left is on a noticeable lean.
A photograph of a man climbing a tree in Hagley Park. In the background, a lamp post has a noticeable lean. Behind that, the structure of a large marquee can be seen.
A photograph of a man climbing a tree in Hagley Park. In the background, a lamp post has a noticeable lean. Behind that, the structure of a large marquee can be seen.
An extensive research program is on-going at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand to develop new technologies to permit the construction of multi-storey timber buildings in earthquake prone areas. The system combines engineered timber beams, columns and walls with ductile moment resisting connections using post-tensioned tendons and eventually energy dissipaters. The extensive experimental testing on post-tensioned timber building systems has proved a remarkable lateral response of the proposed solutions. A wide number of post-tensioned timber subassemblies, including beam-column connections, single or coupled walls and column-foundation connections, have been analysed in static or quasi-static tests. This contribution presents the results of the first dynamic tests carried out with a shake-table. Model frame buildings (3-storey and 5-storey) on one-quarter scale were tested on the shake-table to quantify the response of post-tensioned timber frames during real-time earthquake loading. Equivalent viscous damping values were computed for post-tensioned timber frames in order to properly predict their response using numerical models. The dynamic tests were then complemented with quasi-static push and pull tests performed to a 3-storey post-tensioned timber frame. Numerical models were included to compare empirical estimations versus dynamic and quasi-static experimental results. Different techniques to model the dynamic behaviour of post-tensioned timber frames were explored. A sensitivity analysis of alternative damping models and an examination of the influence of designer choices for the post-tensioning force and utilization of column armouring were made. The design procedure for post-tensioned timber frames was summarized and it was applied to two examples. Inter-storey drift, base shear and overturning moments were compared between numerical modelling and predicted/targeted design values.
Revisiting some of my images coming up to our one year anniversary of the 22 February 2011 Christchurch 6.3 earthquake. Blue Jean Cuisine (Old Sydenham Post Office) built in 1911 was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquakes was demolished 2012.
The Old Lyttelton Post Office, opened in 1874, showing damage after a series of earthquakes hit Christchurch and Lyttelton over the last 9 months. In the shadow of a broken house, Down a deserted street, Propt walls, cold hearths, and phantom stairs, And the silence of dead feet — Locked wildly in one another's arms I saw two lovers meet. ...
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The old Sydenham Methodist Church corner Colombo and Brougham Streets".
A story submitted by Anonymous to the QuakeStories website.
A photograph of the old post office building on the corner of Tuam Street and High Street which housed Alice in Videoland before the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Damage to the dome of the Post Office Building.