The Cranmer Centre on Armagh Street with scaffolding up the side. Large sections of masonry from the building's gables have collapsed onto the lawn in front.
The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission will hear this week that the cost of upgrading the city's unreinforced masonry buildings is more than the buildings are worth.
Bricks littering the street below the former Sumner Borough Council building. The building is cordoned off, and shipping containers protect the street from further falling masonry.
Bricks littering the street below the former Sumner Borough Council building. The building is cordoned off, and shipping containers protect the street from further falling masonry.
A photograph of a peice of masonry which has been removed from the roof of St John the Baptist Church and placed on the ground outside.
A photograph of a peice of masonry which has been removed from the roof of St John the Baptist Church and placed on the ground outside.
A photograph of USAR codes spray painted in a window of the former Sydenham Post Office. Cracks can be seen in the masonry around the window.
A wooden brace holding up a window of the Cramner Centre, formerly Christchurch Girls' High School. The masonry above the window has fallen away during the earthquake.
A photograph of the Cranmer Centre on Armagh Street. The stone tips of two gables have been removed from the building and placed together on the lawn.
A photograph of the Cranmer Centre on Armagh Street. The stone tips of two gables have been removed from the building and placed together on the lawn.
Damage to the A and T Burt building on Ferry Road in Woolston. Masonry has collapsed from the top section of the building's front wall, exposing its ceiling.
Damage to the Music Centre of Christchurch building on Barbadoes Street. Tarpaulins have been used to weather proof gaps in the building's gables from where masonry has fallen.
Damage to the Music Centre of Christchurch building on Barbadoes Street. Tarpaulins have been used to weather proof gaps in the building's gables from where masonry has fallen.
St John's Presbyterian Church on Winchester Street in Lyttelton. The ground around the church is strewn with masonry that has fallen from the church's walls and collapsed tower.
As part of a seismic retrofit scheme, surface bonded glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) fabric was applied to two unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings located in Christchurch, New Zealand. The unreinforced stone masonry of Christchurch Girls’ High School (GHS) and the unreinforced clay brick masonry Shirley Community Centre were retrofitted using surface bonded GFRP in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Much of the knowledge on the seismic performance of GFRP retrofitted URM was previously assimilated from laboratory-based experimental studies with controlled environments and loading schemes. The 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence provided a rare opportunity to evaluate the GFRP retrofit applied to two vintage URM buildings and to document its performance when subjected to actual design-level earthquake-induced shaking. Both GFRP retrofits were found to be successful in preserving architectural features within the buildings as well as maintaining the structural integrity of the URM walls. Successful seismic performance was based on comparisons made between the GFRP retrofitted GHS building and the adjacent nonretrofitted Boys’ High School building, as well as on a comparison between the GFRP retrofitted and nonretrofitted walls of the Shirley Community Centre building. Based on detailed postearthquake observations and investigations, the GFRP retrofitted URM walls in the subject buildings exhibited negligible to minor levels of damage without delamination, whereas significant damage was observed in comparable nonretrofitted URM walls. AM - Accepted Manuscript
A view from the corner of Worcester and Montreal Streets to the Untouched World shop in the Arts Centre. Masonry from the building has collapsed onto the footpath below.
A view from the corner of Worcester and Montreal Streets to the Untouched World shop in the Arts Centre. Masonry from the building has collapsed onto the footpath below.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "St. Mary's Anglican Church in Timaru is cordoned off due to the risk of falling masonry after the 7.1 magnitude earthquake centered near Darfield".
An UnReinforced clay brick Masonry (URM) chimney is composed of a cantilever URM appendage above a roofline and is considered one of the most earthquake prone non-structural compo¬nents within vintage URM and timber-framed buildings. Observations from past earthquakes including the 1992 Big Bear City earthquake, 1994 Northridge earthquake, 2001 Nisqually earthquake, 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes, 2012 Northern Italy earthquakes, and 2014 South Napa earthquake served repeatedly as a reminder of the hazard induced by URM chimneys. The observed failure types included several cases where the adopted retrofit techniques were not adequate to effectively secure chimneys dur¬ing the earthquake. Data collected during the 2010/2011 post-earthquake building assessments in Christchurch and insur¬ance claims are reported herein. Five full-scale solid clay brick URM chimneys which replicated the most encountered geometrical and construction characteristics were subjected to shake table testing. Two chim¬ney samples were representative of the as-built conditions, while three samples were retrofitted using two different configurations of Near-Surface-Mounted (NSM) Carbon-Fibre-Reinforced-Polymer (CFRP) strips and post-tensioning techniques. The adopted securing techniques allowed an increase in seismic acceleration capacity of more than five times for chimneys constructed with ultra-weak mortar and more than twice for chimneys built with weak mortar. http://www.16ibmac.com/
Cracks in the masonry of the Arts Centre's Worcester Street face. Some stones have fallen away around the roof's apex, and plywood has been used to weather proof the gap.
The roof of St John the Baptist Church on Latimer Square. Masonry has tumbled into the building, tearing a hole in the roof and exposing the inside of the church.
A photograph of the badly-damaged Octagon Live Restaurant on the corner of Worcester and Manchester Streets. The masonry around the gable has crumbled, falling onto the footpath in front.
Cracks in the masonry of the Arts Centre's Worcester Street face. Some stones have fallen away around the roof's apex, and plywood has been used to weather proof the gap.
Masonry that has fallen from St John the Baptist Church in Latimer Square piled on a pallet in front of the church. Cracks can be seen in the building's foundations.
A photograph of a member of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team standing in front of the earthquake-damaged Avonmore House on Hereford Street. Sections of the walls have crumbled, spilling bricks and masonry onto the footpath and street below. Many of the windows have warped, breaking the glass. USAR codes have been spray-painted on one of the columns. A red sticker taped to the door indicates that the building is unsafe to enter.
A photograph of a member of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team standing in front of the earthquake-damaged Avonmore House on Hereford Street. Sections of the walls have crumbled, spilling bricks and masonry onto the footpath and street below. Many of the windows have also warped, breaking the glass. USAR codes have been spray-painted on one of the columns. A red sticker taped to the door indicates that the building is unsafe to enter.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Avonmore House on the corner of Hereford Street and Latimer Square. Large cracks have formed in the building, causing sections of the masonry to crumble. The windows on the Hereford Street side of the building have bent out of shape and many of the glass panes have shattered. USAR codes have been spray painted on the column next to the door. In the distance wire fencing has been placed across the street as a cordon.
Unreinforced masonry churches in New Zealand, similarly to everywhere else in the word have proven to be highly vulnerable to earthquakes, because of their particular construction features. The Canterbury (New Zealand) earthquake sequence, 2010-2011 caused an invaluable loss of local architectural heritage and of churches, as regrettably, some of them were demolished instead of being repaired. It is critical for New Zealand to advance the data collection, research and understanding pertaining to the seismic performance and protection of church buildings, with the aim to:
A photograph of a block of earthquake-damaged buildings on Manchester Street. The outer wall of the second storey has collapsed, the bricks and other rubble spilling onto the footpath. Several cars have been crushed by the falling rubble.
A damaged house on Manchester Street. A section of wall where masonry has collapsed has been weather proofed with a black tarpaulin. The building's chimney has fallen on to its roof.