A crowd watches buskers performing outside Ballantynes during the World Buskers Festival.
A crowd watches a busker perform outside Ballantynes during the World Buskers Festival.
A crowd watches a busker perform outside Ballantynes during the World Buskers Festival.
A crowd watches a busker perform outside Ballantynes during the World Buskers Festival.
A crowd watching a busker perform in the Re:Start mall during the World World Buskers Festival.
A crowd watching a busker perform in the Re:Start mall during the World World Buskers Festival.
Bike stands in Re:Start in the shape of fern fronds. In the background, a crowd watches a busker perform during the World World Buskers Festival.
The Earthquake Recovery Minister says the Christchurch City Council has wasted an opportunity in deciding to save the Town Hall, instead of building a new performing arts precinct.
A video about the Christchurch Pops Choir which is performing at the Christchurch Arts Festival. The video includes interviews with artistic director Luke Di Somma and president Lee Harris. Di Somma and Harris talk about starting the choir after the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, and singing pop music. The video also includes footage of the choir singing as part of a flash mob at the Christchurch International Airport.
Seismic retrofitting of unreinforced masonry buildings using posttensioning has been the topic of many recent experimental research projects. However, the performance of such retrofit designs in actual design level earthquakes has previously been poorly documented. In 1984 two stone masonry buildings within The Arts Centre of Christchurch received posttensioned seismic retrofits, which were subsequently subjected to design level seismic loads during the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence. These 26 year old retrofits were part of a global scheme to strengthen and secure the historic building complex and were subject to considerable budgetary constraints. Given the limited resources available at the time of construction and the current degraded state of the steel posttension tendons, the posttensioned retrofits performed well in preventing major damage to the overall structure of the two buildings in the Canterbury earthquakes. When compared to other similar unretrofitted structures within The Arts Centre, it is demonstrated that the posttensioning significantly improved the in-plane and out-of-plane wall strength and the ability to limit residual wall displacements. The history of The Arts Centre buildings and the details of the Canterbury earthquakes is discussed, followed by examination of the performance of the posttension retrofits and the suitability of this technique for future retrofitting of other historic unreinforced masonry buildings. http://www.aees.org.au/downloads/conference-papers/2013-2/