Capture: Two Tales of a City
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Beyond the barrier 2
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Beyond the barrier 3
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Beyond the barrier 4
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Beyond the barrier 5
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On the verandah
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Hebe, in reply to
Beyond the barrier 4
Shands Emporium. Available for rescue I believe.
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mark taslov, in reply to
Available for rescue I believe.
Super! Now to figure out how to upload more than one pic per post…
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Hebe, in reply to
Aggregate pass…Chchch Railway Station 2012
How bad was it after the Quakes and before Demolition? And, was it in the way of the new proposed Convention Centre? Does anyone know?
The clock tower was braced with sheets of ply after the September 2010 ( or was it Boxing Day 2010?), anyway forever ago. The building didn't come down in the February 22 shake but from memory stayed standing but was closed. Demolition started a month or two back and Ian's photo is pretty much what I saw about 5pm today ( It's so weird: I drive past three or four times a day usually yet I can't recall exactly when a huge building like that is wrecked. So many are there one day, gone a month later, and google street view is often more 'real' than the present empty spaces or piles of rubble.) A hotel and retail complex is going down the western end (Hoyts) part of the site, but the Science Alive end isn't settled yet.
I loved that booking hall when I was a kid: the marbled (terrazzo?) floot with its map of New Zealand outlined in brass lines; the big ceiling and the very official ticket offices along the side wall; the lots of big swing doors leading out to the platform; the railcar with its reversible red seats and menacing stripy nose coming in from Greymouth in the evening.
The convention centre is to go in the Square, sitting across Chancery Lane through the Government Life building, and going across Gloucester St and the central library site to the river.
Did you know that the last convention centre cost just under $20 million to build? Our new one will cost $220 million - 11 times as much - but it will only be twice the size. I have yet to see a convincing cost-benefit analysis for that; but hey that doesn't matter. Cera has decreed, and Christchurch ratepayers will pay for it. And which favoured multinational company will be awarded the lease so any profit can be exported straight outta town? The employment for the locals yet again will be low-paid tourism lackey jobs.
Yes, we long-time Christchurch people do know we're being screwed. Our city is not ours any more, exciting as a city rebuild is and the chance to experience it. I feel colonised. Colonised by bossy bureaucrats, ravening big business, opportunists, insurance weasels, and international expats adding to their CVs, all "helping" us.
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Leigh Russell, in reply to
Now to figure out how to upload more than one pic per post…
Hi Mark, post your first picture and then once it's published go back and add the next one by using the edit function. You have fifteen minutes to edit posts (I think!).
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mark taslov, in reply to
Thanks Leigh, I eventually stumbled on the info via Google, but I warmly appreciate you taking the time to post that. Much appreciated. It would be great to see it added to the Upload Guide.
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Leigh Russell, in reply to
You're welcome Mark!
Interesting to see how the views through the barriers change from month to month, thanks for the updates. The city is becoming unrecognisable. When I was in Christchurch just prior to the start of the demolition of Cranmer Courts I took some photographs of that, and of course it is now no more. The crazy thing was that it wasn't until I looked at the Google street view of Kilmore Street that I realised that one of the nearby empty sites was where the multi-storey building had been where my dad had worked. That was a long time ago, but it still felt spooky. It is spooky. The centre of Christchurch is becoming a city of ghosts. -
The Grand Chancellor is getting smaller. Taken today.
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Show Week in Christchurch.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Checking out...
The Grand Chancellor is getting smaller
aaah, but is it The Grand Chancellor?
I think that's gone now...
Isn't that the hotel opposite The GC
(and opposite Echo Records/WINZ)
that I'm damned if I can remember
the name of...
...a common complaint for me
round 'down town' now. -
Joe Wylie, in reply to
aah, but is it The Grand Chancellor?
I think that's gone now...
Isn't that the hotel opposite The GC
(and opposite Echo Records/WINZ)
that I'm damned if I can remember
the name of... -
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
prompt action
;- )...and wasn't it a bank, or a building society or somesuch, before it became a hotel, I recollect a reflecting pool...
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
...and wasn't it a bank, or a building society or somesuch, before it became a hotel...
Don't know about that, but I've read that the Grand Chancellor was converted from an office building, so it sounds probable. I can understand why it and the Holiday Inn are easily confused with one another, as they both sported those oversized mansion from Psycho roof structures. Kind of an attempt at a Chchch vernacular style, while referencing Mountfort's penchant for French chalet flavoured gothic.
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Hebe, in reply to
mansion from Psycho roof structures.
Mansard roofs? Horrible cheap roof solutions. Ian is right about the reflecting pool; Greg and sons were sitting by the pool during a big aftershock at the end of 2010; they thought the building was going to fall then.
I hear that Twinkletoes is bringing down the building quickly with no ceremony because it is thought it is perilously close to collapse in even a moderate shake; the aggregate effect of 10,000 plus shocks is telling. -
Hebe, in reply to
I find the empty sites far less distressing than the piles of collapsed buildings lying around last year. It's different for sure, but there is a sense of "what next" possibility. The view of the Port Hills are opening up all around town: I hadn't realised how the tall buildings separated the hills from the city. Also nature is at work: lots of birds and wildflower patches people have planted, and random seedlings popping up -- trees and weeds.
Islander mentioned a while ago how the sound of birds was deafening in the area before Pakeha settled. I hope to see some return of that connection to the natural world.
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
Show Week in Christchurch.
Love that. The side of the truck (?) saying "Expect to see the bigger picture" but the people focussed on something rather small. It seems to sum up a fair bit of life.
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Hebe,
Someone called Hexadecimal Feat. Ingrid Hakanson has done this song. I like it.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Islander mentioned a while ago how the sound of birds was deafening in the area before Pakeha settled. I hope to see some return of that connection to the natural world.
Can't remember where I saw them, but I recall a display somewhere of badly stuffed & mounted birds, including a tui and bellbird. Some early Victorian's trophies, mostly recorded as being shot in Barbadoes Street cemetery.
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Lilith __, in reply to
Holiday Inn
Oh thanks Joe, and Ian. Brain fade. :-)
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Culture vultures in Chch should go visit painter David Woodings at his gallery-studio. His show, Winners and Losers is a mesmerising display of 52 not-quite-identical coin-operated rocking-horses. It’s a year’s work, and a commentary on living in post-quake Chch and trying to get ahead.
David’s there 10-4 every day until the 25th November, at 109 Mackenzie Ave, Woolston.
And yes, you may have seen him on TV !
You can also visit his website .
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