July 19, 2013

CDHB rescues one of city’s heritage buildings

The finishing touches are being put to one of the few Christchurch city heritage buildings to survive the quakes.

Whakatata House on the corner of Cashel and Montreal streets has been restored to its former glory after extensive repairs and refurbishment by Fletcher Construction on behalf of the Canterbury District Health Board.

The building is circa 1910 and has a long history with the Canterbury Health system. CDHB Specialist Mental Health Services occupied the building for more than 20 years up until they were displaced as a result of the February 22 quake.

Wayne Lawson, CDHB site redevelopment manager, says the engineers’ structural assessment of the building was unfavourable after the quakes and it was deemed earthquake prone.

“As a consequence of the quakes the building experienced a differential settlement of up to 88mm, there was extensive cracking of the internal walls, ceilings and perimeter foundation beams,” Wayne says.

“We had to jack the building up to re-level it – we have had to replace sections of the bottom plate the lowest timber bearer, which sits directly on top of the foundations – without the building collapsing.

“We have taken the opportunity to re-insulate the building and upgrade the electrical systems; we have replaced extensive portions of wall and ceiling linings and generally given the whole place a spruce-up.”

The repairs and refurbishment has cost around $1.5 million.

ENDS

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