Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The remains of the Convention Centre viewed from Peterborough Street with the Town Hall a block away on Kilmore Street".
A photograph looking over Victoria Square from inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel, towards the Port Hills.
An aerial photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Victoria Square".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Remains of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, south-east corner Durham and Kilmore Streets".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "From Kilmore Street (back to the Town Hall) looking across the site of the demolished Convention Centre to the Peterborough Street Library".
An aerial photograph looking south over the Christchurch CBD centred on Colombo Street. The Town Hall and beginnings of Gap Filler's Pallet Pavilion can be seen to the bottom left.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Looking from north-east to south-west across the Arts Centre, Christ's College and Hagley Park".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Looking from north-east to south-west across the CBD".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The Ferrier Fountain against a backdrop of broken steps and spring growth".
An aerial photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Colombo Street with Kilmore Street on the right and Peterborough Street on the left".
A digger being used to clear the rubble from the Convention Centre on Peterborough Street. In the background, the Town Hall can be seen, as well as the Forsyth Barr building.
A photograph of people walking past the Convention Centre on Kilmore Street. Wire fencing has been placed along the street to keep people away from the damaged Town Hall.
An aerial photograph of Victoria Square and the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
The bridge that used to run from the Town Hall to the Convention Centre, now detached from the buildings and placed on Kilmore Street. Three diggers can be seen through the glass of the bridge.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Looking south along Colombo Street towards the CBD".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The remains of the Convention Centre viewed from Peterborough Street with the Town Hall behind. The skyline from here will change considerably as a number of the tall buildings shaping the skyline are demolished".
An aerial photograph of the Christchurch central city with the Farmers car park in the centre and Victoria Square in the background.
An aerial photograph of the Christchurch central city with Victoria Square in the centre and the Crowne Plaza in the distance.
An aerial photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Victoria Square is at the centre of this picture with its green lawns and trees. The bare patch of earth in front s the demolition sites of the Allan McLean building, the Oxford on Avon, and Plunket House. The contract to demolish the Crowne Plaza Hotel has been let, while the fate of the Town Hall is still undecided. The Convention Centre is coming down. On the very bottom, slightly to the right is the Medlab building which is also to be demolished. In the bottom left corner is the PWC building which is also to be demolished".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Looking south across Bealey Avenue and between Colombo and Durham Streets towards the CBD".
An aerial photograph of Cambridge Terrace with the cleared PGC site in the upper centre. The photograph was captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The area inside the cordon that is north of the river which encompasses the PGC site and Kilmore Street. The expectation is that this area will soon be outside the cordon".
An aerial photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Central city blocks bounded by Colombo Street, Hereford Street, Cashel Street, and High Street".
An entry from Jennifer Middendorf's blog for 23 December 2012 entitled, "Pallets and pop-up tearooms".
An aerial photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Central city blocks bounded by Colombo Street, Hereford Street, Cashel Street, and High Street".
An aerial photograph of the Christchurch Central City. The photograph has been captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Central city blocks bounded by Colombo Street, Hereford Street, Cashel Street and High Streets".
A photograph of Celia Wade-Brown, Mayor of Wellington, speaking at a graduation ceremony for more than 40 new civil defence volunteers in the Wellington Town Hall. Members of the Wellington Emergency Management Office team were presented certificates of appreciation during this event. The certificates were presented to the members to honour their involvement in the emergency response to the 22 February 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch.
Architecture and music have a long intertwining history.These respective creative forces many times have collaborated into monumental place, harboured rich occasion, been catalyst for cultural movement and defined generations. Together they transcend their respective identities. From dinky local church to monstrous national stadia, together they are an intense concentration, a powerfully addictive dosage where architecture is the place, music is the faith, and people are the reason. Music is a programme that architecture often celebrates in poetic and grand fashion; a superficial excuse to symbolise their creative parallels. But their relationship is much richer and holds more value than just the opportunity to attempt architectural metaphor.While music will always overshadow the architecture in the sense of a singular event, architecture is like the soundman behind the mixing desk. It’s not the star front and centre grabbing your attention, but is responsible for framing the star. It is the foundational backdrop, a critical pillar. Great architecture can help make great music. In this sense music is a communication of architecture, it is the ultimate creative function. Christchurch, New Zealand, is a city whose story changed in an instant. The seismic events of 2010 and 2011 have become the overriding subject of its historical narrative, as it will be for years to come. Disaster redefines place (the town of Napier, struck by an earthquake in 1931, exemplifies this). There is no quantifiable justification for an exploration of architecture and music within the context of Christchurch. The Town Hall, one of New Zealand’s most architecturally significant buildings, is under repair. The Christ Church Cathedral will more than likely be rebuilt to some degree of its former self. But these are echoes of the city that Christchurch was.They are saved because they are artefact. Evidence of history.This thesis makes the argument for the new, the better than before, and for the making of opportunity from disaster, by proposing a ‘new’ town hall, conceived from the sound of old.
This dissertation explores the advocacy for the Christchurch Town Hall that occurred in 2012-2015 after the Canterbury Earthquakes. It frames this advocacy as an instance of collective-action community participation in a heritage decision, and explores the types of heritage values it expressed, particularly social values. The analysis contextualises the advocacy in post-quake Christchurch, and considers its relationship with other developments in local politics, heritage advocacy, and urban activism. In doing so, this dissertation considers how collective action operates as a form of public participation, and the practical implications for understanding and recognising social value. This research draws on studies of practices that underpin social value recognition in formal heritage management. Social value is held by communities outside institutions. Engaging with communities enables institutions to explore the values of specific places, and to realise the potential of activating local connections with heritage places. Such projects can be seen as participatory practices. However, these processes require skills and resources, and may not be appropriate for all places, communities and institutions. However, literature has understudied collective action as a form of community participation in heritage management. All participation processes have nuances of communities, processes, and context, and this dissertation analyses these in one case. The research specifically asked what heritage values (especially social values) were expressed through collective action, what the relationship was with the participation processes, communities, and wider situation that produced them, and the impact on institutional rhetoric and decisions. The research analysed values expressed in representations made to council in support of the Town Hall. It also used documentary sources and interviews with key informants to analyse the advocacy and decision-making processes and their relationships with the wider context and other grassroots activities. The analysis concluded that the values expressed intertwined social and professional values. They were related to the communities and circumstance that produced them, as an advocacy campaign for a civic heritage building from a Western architectural tradition. The advocacy value arguments were one of several factors that impacted the decision. They have had a lasting impact on rhetoric around the Town Hall, as was a heritage-making practice in its own right. This dissertation makes a number of contributions to the discussion of social value and community in heritage. It suggests connections between advocacy and participation perspectives in heritage. It recommends consideration of nuances of communities, context, and place meanings when using heritage advocacy campaigns as evidence of social value. It adds to the literature on heritage advocacy, and offers a focused analysis of one of many heritage debates that occurred in post-quake Christchurch. Ultimately, it encourages practice to actively integrate social and community values and to develop self-reflexive engagement and valuation processes. Despite inherent challenges, participatory processes offer opportunities to diversify understandings of value, co-produce heritage meanings with communities, and empower citizens in democratic processes around the places they live with and love.
An aerial photograph of the Christchurch central city. The photograph has been captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "This photograph shows nearly all of the CBD. The two streets which are prominent in this photograph are Manchester Street on the left and Colombo Street on the right of the photograph. This photograph is from the north, looking towards the southern part of the city. Cathedral Square is about half way up, towards the right. It shows the extent of demolition that has happened already close to the river and near the Manchester/Gloucester Street intersection where there is a lot of bare land surrounding Radio Network House".