The rain has finally arrived .....

It has been an absolutely awful day in Christchurch, I don't think it has stopped raining since I woke up this morning.Though, to be honest, this is the first decent amount of rain we have had since I arrived on the South Island in January! 

Work at the Arts Centre, however, has been good. After a very interesting meeting with the heritage people from NZHPT and Christchurch Council (where after weeks of structural engineering meetings it was nice to actually understand what was under discussion), I got to wander around the site snapping up-to-date site images for our CEO: 

We have three main buildings that are under going work at the moment;the Clock Tower and College Hall, Gymnasium and Registry. 

Registry is nearly finished and will hopefully be let come summer (our winter, but to avoid confusion for those in the Northern Hemisphere). 

 (Do not believe the scaffold...it lies!)

A few weeks ago, the replicas of the chimney that were carved on site of those that fell down in the earthquake were reinstalled on the northern facade. 

and the stonemasons have also finished the southern window and quoins.

The College Hall and Clock Tower however, have quite a long way to go: 

(In this case, the scaffold is definitely not lying.)

 The internal walls and mezzanine of the Gymnasium have come down and the internal wall strengthening is starting to be installed.

 Most of it is through the use of reinforced concrete and steel pins, which at the moment, look slightly threatening.

Work is also about to begin on Boys' High. Internal pinning of the gable ends has already taken place. 

But this image shows just how much two buildings can move. Quite a significant amount of the damage actually came from either additions or extensions that were not incorporated into the original building effectively or through adjacent structures: as the seismic activity causes movement, the individual areas move seperatley, causing force and friction and inevitably resulting in a rather large (unfortunate) mess of masonry. 

Yes, that is daylight through there! 

This is a very brief outline of the current work at the Arts Centre, if you have any questions please feel free to ask either here or on our tumblr account. 


However, I wouldn't want you thinking that it is work, work, work around here: 

Hope you are enjoying the rain just as much as we are!