The construction of government buildings have long attracted opinion and criticism and the Italian Renaissance style Government Buildings on the corner of Worcester street and Cathedral Square were…
Graphs showing people's expectations for the future.
An Alumni and Fundraising pamphlet from the University of Canterbury, promoting the restoration of the Townsend Telescope. The pamphlet is titled, "Return Star Gazing to Christchurch".
A graphic showing heritage buildings restored using public money, which have since been marked for demolition due to earthquake damage.
Cultural heritage is a dynamic concept, incorporating the ideas and values of many different organisations and individuals; it is heavily dependent on the context of the item or site being conserved, and transforms something from an old article into a historically significant object. A formal definition of cultural heritage did not appear in the Antarctic Treaty System until 1995, however Antarctic heritage value has been applied to various sites and monuments since the inception of the Treaty, from Shackleton’s Nimrod Hut to a heavy tractor. This report examines a number of case studies to determine the various ways in which heritage items and sites can be managed – such as the removal of the South Pole Dome – as well as their conservation after natural disasters, for instance the Christchurch earthquakes.
A map showing the locations of heritage buildings which are in areas marked for projects in the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan.
As Wellington debates the future of its earthquake-damaged central library, and Christchurch enjoys its new high tech one, it's the perfect time to really think about libraries of the future.
This is an ethnographic case study, tracking the course of arguments about the future of a city’s central iconic building, damaged following a major earthquake sequence. The thesis plots this as a social drama and examines the central discourses of the controversy. The focus of the drama is the Anglican neo-Gothic Christ Church Cathedral, which stands in the central square of Christchurch, New Zealand. A series of major earthquakes in 2010/2011 devastated much of the inner city, destroying many heritage-listed buildings. The Cathedral was severely damaged and was declared by Government officials in 2011 to be a dangerous building, which needed to be demolished. The owners are the Church Property Trustees, chaired by Bishop Victoria Matthews, a Canadian appointed in 2008. In March 2012 Matthews announced that the Cathedral, because of safety and economic factors, would be deconstructed. Important artefacts were to be salvaged and a new Cathedral built, incorporating the old and new. This decision provoked a major controversy, led by those who claimed that the building could and should be restored. Discourses of history and heritage, memory, place and identity, ownership, economics and power are all identified, along with the various actors, because of their significance. However, the thesis is primarily concerned with the differing meanings given to the Cathedral. The major argument centres on the symbolic interaction between material objects and human subjects and the various ways these are interpreted. At the end of the research period, December 2015, the Christ Church Cathedral stands as a deteriorating wreck, inhabited by pigeons and rats and shielded by protective, colourfully decorated wooden fences. The decision about its future remains unresolved at the time of writing.
A page banner which is part of a series of banners about earthquake-related articles.
The David and Goliath battle over a heritage building sitting in the way of a planned $473 million dollar, multi-use arena for Christchurch has ended up in court. The 25,000-seated, roofed arena is the final anchor project for the Christchurch rebuild and will be designed to host everything from All Blacks tests to big concerts. But sitting on the edge of the site, at 212 Madras Street, is the NG Building, a 115-year old warehouse that's home to a number of creative businesses. It escaped the worst of the 2011 earthquake and was strengthened by its owners: Roland Logan and Sharon Ng. They say they were told in 2013 the building could be incorporated into the arena's design, and are at loggerheads over its compulsory acquisition. Last week they were at the High Court seeking an injunction that would allow them to temporarily maintain ownership of the building, and that decision was released yesterday - and upheld. Roland joins Kathryn to discuss why they hope the building can be saved.
'Is this the Brighter Future?': Rachel Graham looks at how the Government's decisions have impacted the lives of people in Christchurch.
A decision on the future of Christchurch's red zoned land could be made within a year. That's the hope of the man at the helm of Regenerate Christchurch, one of two organisations charged with taking over the city's rebuild from the Earthquake Recovery Authority, which shuts its doors in just three days.
A video of an interview with Roger Sutton, Chief Executive of CERA, about his vision for Christchurch. Sutton talks about CERA's Christchurch central city blueprint, the need to show off the heritage buildings in Christchurch, how to link the central city to the suburbs, and how to make compromises.
A page banner promoting an article about New Brighton's future.
An infographic showing differing views on the future of ChristChurch Cathedral.
A Christchurch Heritage Trust plaque outside a house on the section 86-100 Chester Street East.
A page banner promoting an article titled, "(Re)building your future".
Insurance company, Tower, says it's started the year on a positive note despite bad weather and lingering complex claims from the Christchurch earthquakes.
Appendix Two to the submission of the then New Zealand Historical Places Trust to the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission. The appendix is titled, "Damage to Significant Buildings in Central Christchurch (as at 13 October 2011)".
A video of a protest against the demolition of the Majestic Theatre on Manchester Street. The video includes an interview with Christchurch City Councillor Yani Johanson. Johanson talks about how the lack of heritage recovery programme in Christchurch has meant that many heritage buildings have destroyed, mainly through the fast-tracking of consenting by the government. Johanson asks that the government returns normal democratic decision making over heritage to the Christchurch City Council so that the public can have a say. The video also includes footage of the Wizard and a protester speaking outside the Majestic Theatre.
A page banner promoting an article titled, "Change of heart: 70-year-old aerial photo found".
One of the Christchurch suburbs worst hit in the Canterbury earthquakes is on the way to recovery.
For Best View Press"L" All 23 Arts Centre heritage buildings received significant damage in the earthquake and its subsequent aftershocks, and all have been issued with a red “Unsafe” placard. As a result of the magnitude of this damage, the Arts Centre Trust Board— the body charged with ensuring this iconic precinct is preserved and pr...
Heritage buildings are an important element of our urban environments, representing the hope and aspirations of a generation gone, reminding us of our achievements and our identity. When heritage buildings suffer damage, or fall into disrepair they are either met by one of two extremes; a bulldozer or painstaking repair. If the decision to conserve defeats the bulldozer, current heritage practice favours restoration into a mausoleum-type monument to yesteryear. But what if, rather than becoming a museum, these heritage buildings could live on and become a palimpsest of history? What if the damage was embraced and embodied in the repair? The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Barbadoes Street, Christchurch is the case study building for this thesis. Suffering damage in the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, the Cathedral sits in ruin waiting for decisions to be made around how it can be retained for future generations. This thesis will propose a reconstruction for the Cathedral through the analysis of precedent examples of reconstructing damaged heritage buildings and guided by a heritage framework proposed in this thesis. The employed process will be documented as an alternative method for reconstructing other damaged heritage buildings.
The front page graphic for The Press. The main headline reads, "Facing the future".
The front page graphic for a Press special feature titled, "The future of Christchurch".
Monavale, a publicly owned heritage building and gardens - can't see it surviving this one.
The Anglican church yesterday announced members of Canterbury's synod will now decide the earthquake damaged cathedral's future at its meeting in September.
Christchurch artist Phillip Trusttum and gallery owner Jonathan Smart on how visual artists are accepting what's been lost and looking to the future, post the earthquake.
A PDF copy of page 132 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The page documents the transitional project 'Hunters & Collectors Building'. Note that images have been removed from the page for copyright reasons.