Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Barbadoes Street, missing its distinctive green domes".
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Building rubble on the cathedral grounds.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Building rubble on the cathedral grounds.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. View from the side with diggers at work.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Detail to the front entrance of the cathedral.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Detail to the front entrance of the cathedral.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. View from the side with diggers at work.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Detail of the sculpture on top of the cathedral.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Close-up of some equipment that are being used on site.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Flowers have been put on the fence in front of the cathedral.
Damage to Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. A member of the public looks through the fences with diggers at work.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Detail of a photograph of the cathedral taken prior to the earthquakes.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. On the fence is a photograph of what the cathedral looked like before the earthquake.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Looking through the fence on to the side and front where shipping containers are being used to support the walls.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Looking through the fence on to the side and front where shipping containers are being used to support the walls.
Aerial footage of the Christchurch central city. The video includes footage of the Hotel Grand Chancellor, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Manchester Street, the former Press Building, Worcester Street, Cathedral Square, St Elmo Courts, Cashel Mall, St John the Baptist Church hall, the Regent Theatre, the Arts Centre, Woolsack Lane, and the Farmers car park.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Close up of shipping containers supporting the exterior wall, and in front is a pile of building rubble and a digger.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Close up of shipping containers supporting the exterior wall, and in front is a pile of building rubble and a digger.
A photograph submitted by Anonymous to the QuakeStories website. The description reads, "Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament (29-2-12), Barbadoes Street. What will become of this beautiful icon?".
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Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "View from the roof of Alice in Videoland building".
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. On the fence is a sign that says 'Catholic Cathedral Parish. Has moved to St Mary's Pro Cathedral. 373 Mancester Street. Visitors, Tourist and Parishioners are ALL welcome. www.christchurchcathedral.org.nz'.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Looking through the fence on to the side and front where shipping containers are being used to support the walls, with a pile of concrete blocks next to the cathedral.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Looking through the fence on to the side and front where shipping containers are being used to support the walls. On the cordon are signs that say 'Danger. Demolition in Progress. No Entry', and 'Monitored construction alarms. Site secured. No Unauthorised entry'.
The Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament is a category 1 listed heritage building constructed largely of unreinforced stone masonry, and was significantly damaged in the recent Canterbury earthquakes. The building experienced ground shaking in excess of its capacity leading to block failures and partial collapse of parts of the building, which left the building standing but still posing a significant hazard. In this paper we discuss the approach to securing the building, and the interaction of the structural, heritage and safety demands involved in a dynamic seismic risk environment. We briefly cover the types of failures observed and the behaviour of the structure, and investigate the performance of both strengthened and un-strengthened parts of the building. Seismic strengthening options are investigated at a conceptual level. We draw conclusions as to how the building performed in the earthquakes, comment on the effectiveness of the strengthening and securing work and discuss the potential seismic strengthening methods.
A digitally manipulated image of a statue of the Virgin Mary in a broken window of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. The photographer comments, "Before the February 2011 earthquake the statue above was facing into the Cathedral looking down a corridor, but after it had turned 180 degrees to point towards the window. The statue of Mary turning like this gave a sign of hope for the people of Christchurch. It was amongst one of the most photographed things after the earthquake until it was removed".