There's good news of sorts on the building-inspection front in Auckland. After nearly seven days of fanning out across the city inspecting damaged buildings - the biggest such deployment of building inspectors since the Christchurch earthquake emergency - the operation will be scaled back this weekend. There are currently around 95 inspectors in the field who have checked 3,500 buildings. As of 6pm last night 190 buildings were red stickered, and a further 790 yellow stickered. The most red stickered areas are Mount Albert/Mt Eden with 54 and the North Shore with 32. Auckland Council general manager building consents Ian McCormick spoke to Corin Dann.
A photograph of the Whitcoulls Building.
A photograph of the Whitcoulls Building.
Instead of concentrating on the buildings destroyed in and after the earthquakes in Christchurch's CBD, a new event is enticing people back to explore the heritage buildings that have survived. A new organisation, Te Putahi, is behind the Open Christchurch programme that celebrates the city's surviving architecture, starting with inner-city schools throwing open their doors to the public. Architectural historian and co-founder of Te Putahi, Dr Jessica Halliday tells Lynn Freeman they hope to encourage discussion around well-designed spaces and their impacts on peoples' lives. Open Christchurch starts next Sunday with a tour of The Cathedral Grammar Junior School.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Christchurch earthquake aftermath. Building inspector Rebecca Sanders photographing the Wilson Parking building on Kilmore Street".
A page banner promoting articles titled, "Antique find: artefacts under building" and, "CBD fire: McKenzie & Willis building ablaze".
A graphic showing how much material from tall building demolitions is recycled.
A graphic showing damage to the Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings.
New Zealand's strict building codes are being praised for minimising the injuries and damage caused by the seven-point one magnitude earthquake that shook Canterbury on Saturday.
A video of the Christchurch central city recorded shortly after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. In the video, Press reporter Olivia Carville describes the experiences of people within the central city. There is also footage of a woman being rescued from the ChristChurch Cathedral, people trapped in the Press building, damaged buildings on Colombo Street and Manchester Street, people evacuating the Forsyth Barr building using a rope, and people gathering in Latimer Square.
The first report into the damage done to three large buildings in the Christchurch earthquake is recommending urgent steps be taken around the country to strengthen buildings with stairwells.
A video of Stone Works removing a time capsule from the foundations of the old Press Building in Cathedral Square. The time capsule was found in the foundation stone of the building. It contained a bundle of newspapers from April 1907, handwritten notes, and coins.
Page 2 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 26 June 2012.
Page 2 of Section C of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 30 June 2012.
The historic Te Koraha building at Rangi Ruru Girls' School under going significant restoration to bring it up to the new building code.
The destruction of the Radio Network building in Christchurch has prompted hopes that explosive demolition could be used to bring down other earthquake-damaged buildings.
Page 7 of Section C of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 16 April 2011.
A Canterbury University engineer says building standards need to be upgraded before rebuilding begins in the earthquake battered region.
A new plan will see all dangerous earthquake-damaged buildings in Christchurch's Cashel Mall pulled down or made safe by mid-July.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Damage to Christchurch CBD buildings after the September 4th earthquake. The MLC building on Manchester Street".
It's been revealed that not a single one of New Zealand's 315 police buildings constructed before 2011 have had a full earthquake safety check. Canterbury's district health buildings and a central Wellington cinema are among other major structures needing checks. Phil Pennington joins us with the details.
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.
New Brighton beach reflected in the window of the New Brighton Public Library building.
Some Christchurch building owners say a bulldozer's the best option, despite the city council calling for government help to rebuild heritage buildings damaged by the earthquake.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 4 December 2012.
A photograph of an vacant site on Madras Street where the YWCA used to stand.
A photograph of a window of 268 Madras Street.
The policing of building safety systems is being cut back nationwide. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is reducing its monitoring of the building warrants of fitness scheme that covers 16 crucial safety systems including fire measures. This coincides with it having to do more checks on what councils are doing regarding fences around pools and earthquake-prone buildings. The cutback is despite ministry reviews which show many councils do little to audit the building warrants they issue. An inspector of building safety systems and adviser on warrants, Charlie Loughnan of Canterbury, told our reporter Phil Pennington that less monitoring is not a good idea.
A page banner promoting articles titled, "This one's saved: Peterborough building" and "Square open".
A time-lapse video of the demolition of Shadbolt House, also known as the Harbour Board building.