A view down Cashel Street. The Crossing building can be partially seen and the Westpac building is in the background. Taken on a day when a walkway was opened up between Re:Start Mall and Cathedral Square to allow temporary public access.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Workers are erecting another crane to work on Clarendon Tower. Near the site of the Regent Theatre in Worcester Boulevard".
A view down Cashel Street. The Crossing building can be partially seen and the Westpac building is in the background. Taken on a day when a walkway was opened up between Re:Start Mall and Cathedral Square to allow temporary public access.
Damage to the Cathedral, and its lawn growing wild. A public walkway through to a small viewing area in the Square was opened up for a few weekends to allow the public to see inside the Red Zone.
A photograph taken from the top of the BNZ building. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Clarendon Towers, Rydges Hotel, Grant Thornton, Brannigans Building (under demolition), former Government Life Building and Farmers are the high buildings dominating the view in this picture".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The reflection of the Novotel Hotel in Cathedral Square in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Building on Armagh Street. This reflection is now possible as six buildings in the path have been demolished".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Demolition site between the former Government Life building (on the right) and Grant Thornton House with Chancery Lane in the background".
Weeds growing through the paving outside the old Post Office building in Cathedral Square. A public walkway through to a small viewing area in the Square was opened up for a few weekends to allow the public to see inside the Red Zone.
The demolition site of the ANZ Building. A digger sits behind a pile of rubble, and water fills the former basement. The former post office can be seen in the background.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "An empty site at 140-144 Gloucester Street which used to be the Star building and the Coachman Hotel".
A photograph taken from the top of the BNZ building. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A group of people on top of the Millennium Hotel".
Colombo Street looking south from Kilmore Street. Wire and concrete fencing has been used as a cordon. In the distance a drill and a crane can be seen, as well as the damaged tower of the Cathedral, the Forsyth Building and the BNZ Building.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "CBD looking east along Cashel Streets. Brightly coloured containers in the new Cashel Mall at centre left".
A PDF copy of the site map for Canterbury Tales. Canterbury Tales was the main event of FESTA 2013; a carnivalesque procession through the central city, led by Free Theatre Christchurch. Sculptural installations and performances were part of the procession, which started at the Bridge of Remembrance and ended in Cathedral Square.
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.
A photograph submitted by Andrew Panckhurst to the QuakeStories website. The description reads, "Peter Symms being cared for shortly after being rescued by Mike Ryan (with blooddy jacket) from the Regent Building in Cathedral Square on 22 February 2011. Originally posted on the CHCH EQ Photos Facebook page".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "CBD looking east along Hereford and Cashel Streets. Brightly coloured containers in the new Cashel Mall at centre left".
A photograph taken from the top of the BNZ building. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Lunchtime in the Square - high-vis jackets, hard hats and boots are mandatory for everyone inside the cordon".
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A view from Cambridge Terrace towards Cathedral Square. The partially deconstructed Hotel Grand Chancellor no longer dominates the sky line. Here it appears between the PricewaterhouseCoopers building on the left and the Novotel Hotel on the right".
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A view from Cambridge Terrace towards Cathedral Square. The partially deconstructed Hotel Grand Chancellor no longer dominates the sky line. Here it appears between the PricewaterhouseCoopers building on the left and the Novotel Hotel on the right".
A photograph of Mike Hewson's installation, 'Old Public Toilets 2014'. The artwork depicts a distorted image of the surrounding buildings. The installation is part of a series titled 'Homage to the Lost Spaces'.
A photograph of Mike Hewson's installation, 'Old Public Toilets 2014'. The artwork depicts a distorted image of the surrounding buildings. The installation is part of a series titled 'Homage to the Lost Spaces'.
A photograph taken from the top of the BNZ building. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A group of people on top of the Millennium Hotel with the Pacific tower to the left of the photo".
Workers eat lunch at an outdoor table next to the Gap Filler Community Chess Set on Colombo Street. The Chess Set was a collaboration between Gap Filler and students at the University of Canterbury. The project aimed to restore the iconic Christchurch Chess Set that used to be played in Cathedral Square.
A photograph of an alleyway between Gloucester Street and Cathedral Square. There is a pile of rubble near the end of the alleyway, fallen from the earthquake-damaged Base Backpackers building, behind the former Canterbury Times building on Gloucester Street. Scaffolding has also been constructed up the side of Base Backpackers.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Pieces of iron fretwork from the entrance of the Warners Hotel which have been carefully laid on the ground outside. This shows the careful salvaging which has taken place in order for pieces to be re-used later".
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Pieces of iron fretwork from the entrance of the Warners Hotel which have been carefully laid on the ground outside. This shows the careful salvaging which has taken place in order for pieces to be re-used later".
A photograph of two large signs at Cathedral Junction that are part of Signs of Things to Come. This was a wayfinding project by Generation Zero and Diadem, for FESTA 2014. The signage gives directions to key central city and FESTA locations, and compares the current and future potential of transport in Christchurch.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Pieces of iron fretwork from the entrance to the Warners Hotel carefully laid on the ground in front of the building. Thisshows the careful salvaging which has taken place during the demolistion of many heritage building in order to be able to re-use significant pieces later".
A pile of rubble from a demolished building on Worcester Street. In the background, the partially demolished Warners Hotel can be seen as well as the Novotel and the PricewaterhouseCoopers Building in the distance. A digger and long-reach excavator can also be seen.