The old Civic Building on Manchester Street

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A colour photograph showing damage to the former City Council Civic Offices following the 22 February 2011 earthquake.

Umut Akguzel Photograph 241

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of building rubble from the partially-demolished former City Council Civic Offices on Manchester Street.

BeckerFraserPhotos June 2011 photograph 165

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Civic Chambers, 194-198 Manchester Street. The rear of the building collapsed on June 13".

BeckerFraserPhotos April 2011 photograph 136

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A view of the Worcester Street bridge from across the Avon River. In the background, the Our City O-Tautahi building is surrounded by scaffolding and bracing, the Rydges building behind.

BeckerFraserPhotos September 2011 photograph 272

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Manchester Street - where the Civic centre was".

Umut Akguzel Photograph 434

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the badly-damaged former Christchurch Civic Offices on Tuam Street. The building has been fenced off and many windows have been broken.

Photograph of City Council Civic Offices, 194-198 Manchester Street (47)

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the ceiling of the City Council Civic Offices on Manchester Street. The room has been exposed by the partial demolition of the building.

Photograph of City Council Civic Offices, 194-198 Manchester Street (28)

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the partially-demolished City Council Civic Offices on Manchester Street. The rooms inside have been exposed by the partial demolition of the building.

Photograph of City Council Civic Offices, 194-198 Manchester Street (29)

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the partially-demolished City Council Civic Offices on Manchester Street. The rooms inside have been exposed by the partial demolition of the building.

BeckerFraserPhotos April 2011 photograph 134

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A view of the Worcester Street bridge from across the Avon River. In the background, the Our City O-Tautahi building is surrounded by scaffolding and bracing, the Rydges building behind.

BeckerFraserPhotos March 2011 photograph 206

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A view down Worcester Street towards Cathedral Square. To the left is the Municipal Chambers Building with steel bracing holding up the front.

Photograph of City Council Civic Offices, 194-198 Manchester Street (6)

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake damage to the City Council Civic Offices on Manchester Street. Red stickers have been taped to the door, indicating that the building is unsafe to enter.

Photograph of City Council Civic Offices, 194-198 Manchester Street (7)

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake damage to the City Council Civic Offices on Manchester Street. Red stickers have been taped to the door, indicating that the building is unsafe to enter.

BeckerFraserPhotos April 2011 photograph 135

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Heavy steel bracing holding up the front facade of the Our City O-Tautahi Building on Worcester Street near Oxford Terrace.

BeckerFraserPhotos December 2011 photograph 0273

Images, UC QuakeStudies

An aerial photograph of the Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch City Council Civic Offices and surrounding buildings.

BeckerFraserPhotos April 2011 photograph 129

Images, UC QuakeStudies

An old fashioned telephone box outside the Our City O-Tautahi building with heavy steel bracing in the background.

BeckerFraserPhotos April 2011 photograph 137

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A view of the Worcester Street bridge from across the Avon River. In the background, the Our City O-Tautahi building is surrounded by scaffolding and bracing, the Rydges building behind.

BeckerFraserPhotos July 2011 photograph 772

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the stained glass skylight in the former City Council Civic Offices building on Manchester Street.

BeckerFraserPhotos July 2011 photograph 034

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of a building on Manchester Street.

BeckerFraserPhotos July 2011 photograph 029

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The Old Civic Chamber on Manchester Street. The stained-glass window is still miraculously intact".

BeckerFraserPhotos December 2011 photograph 0276

Images, UC QuakeStudies

An aerial photograph of the Christchurch City Council Civic Offices and surrounding buildings. The photograph has been captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The River Avon runs through this photograph and marks the western edge of the red zone".

BeckerFraserPhotos October 2011 photograph 428

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Manchester Street between Worcester and Gloucester Streets, looking across where the old Civic Centre was".

BeckerFraserPhotos April 2011 photograph 132

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A tent on Worcester Street set up for the soldiers stationed around the cordon. In the background, the damaged Our City O-Tautahi Building can be seen with steel bracing holding up the front.

Photograph by Jocelyn Kinghorn 519

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A view of the intersection of Cambridge Terrace and Worcester Boulevard. From the left are the Police station, Christchurch City Council's Civic Offices, the HSBC Tower and the Harley Building on the right.

BeckerFraserPhotos October 2011 photograph 614

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Aerial view of the centre of the city, with the cathedral in the centre, and the art gallery in the foreground".

Photograph by Jocelyn Kinghorn 1749

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Looking down Montreal Street, with the Christchurch Art Gallery on the left, and the sculpture "Reasons for Voyaging", a collaboration between Canterbury sculptor, Graham Bennett and architect, David Cole. Behind it is the new Christchurch City Council Civic Offices building.

Time capsules from Christchurch's ruins reveal secrets

Audio, Radio New Zealand

Three time capsules recovered from the ruins of Christchurch in the days following the February earthquake have been opened. Two came from the John Robert Godley statue plinth in front of the Christchurch Cathedral, while the other came from the old civic building on Manchester Street.

Community, resilience and recovery: building or burning bridges?

Research Papers, Lincoln University

There is a critical strand of literature suggesting that there are no ‘natural’ disasters (Abramovitz, 2001; Anderson and Woodrow, 1998; Clarke, 2008; Hinchliffe, 2004). There are only those that leave us – the people - more or less shaken and disturbed. There may be some substance to this; for example, how many readers recall the 7.8 magnitude earthquake centred in Fiordland in July 2009? Because it was so far away from a major centre and very few people suffered any consequences, the number is likely to be far fewer than those who remember (all too vividly) the relatively smaller 7.1 magnitude Canterbury quake of September 4th 2010 and the more recent 6.3 magnitude February 22nd 2011 event. One implication of this construction of disasters is that seismic events, like those in Canterbury, are as much socio-political as they are geological. Yet, as this paper shows, the temptation in recovery is to tick boxes and rebuild rather than recover, and to focus on hard infrastructure rather than civic expertise and community involvement. In this paper I draw upon different models of community engagement and use Putnam’s (1995) notion of ‘social capital’ to frame the argument that ‘building bridges’ after a disaster is a complex blend of engineering, communication and collaboration. I then present the results of a qualitative research project undertaken after the September 4th earthquake. This research helps to illustrate the important connections between technical rebuilding, social capital, recovery processes and overall urban resilience.