I walk up the hill to get the Suzuki. It's a good climb and I meet a friend on her way down. Christchurch is big but it's small. Peter's working on the arch again so I drive over. He spends time finishing off the installation. It's neat and tidy and looks like it's always been there. I admire the care he takes to get it right. Peter tells me he did the plaster work for the restoration of the Theatre Royal, one of the glorious old buildings of beauty saved from demolition after the earthquakes, and the new Convention Centre. He must have a head for heights.
I potter about in the garden and tidy up rubbish. There are nails and small bits of building waste everywhere. I figure the more I pick up, the less will end up in my garden later. This build is not exactly eco-friendly. Too much concrete and concrete composite in the exterior boards, the gib, the slab. Then there's the plaster, the plastic spouting and all the other plastic which ties everything together and smothers the building materials when they emerge from the factory. Yuck.
I make Kahu lunch, workers work better with a full stomach, then put him to work filling nail holes. Meanwhile, I weed along the south fence hoping I don't stick the garden fork into an electric cable. The sun makes a brief appearance and I absorb some Vitamin D. Winter must surely be waning. But Chris is on a ski holiday down south so is hoping for snow. Up north, the rain has been bucketing down and their dire drought has turned into a dire flood. Water cascading down the hills has caused slips and some communities are cut off. Today is also notable for the most Covid cases globally, over 250, 000 in one day. Countries worst hit are US, Brazil, India, South Africa, Russia. New Zealand has 22 cases, one new today from a returnee in quarantine.
At home, it's dinner and preparation for a new school term. I can't find senior marking I need to do, and I may have to change another senior course. Not something I can fix right now but gets me into the work head space in a not so good way, one day early.
The Shaken Theatre Royal
The Isaac Theatre Royal was subjected to severe shaking during the earthquakes of 22nd February and 13th June 2011 and sustained considerable damage; this damage was exacerbated by the constant and frequent aftershocks throughout 2011 and subsequent significant earthquake of 23rd December 2011.
The Back of House and Stage House which were newly built in 2004/05, suffered only moderate damage and were repaired, but the 1908 auditorium and 1928 foyer spaces were not considered repairable in their original form, due to the dangerous nature of the original unreinforced masonry walls. It was noteworthy that the structural earthquake strengthening carried out in 1999/2000 prevented complete collapse of the Theatre and enabled the retrieval and salvage of key heritage items and stabilisation of the Edwardian façade prior to deconstruction.
The Theatre re-opened on 17 November 2014. The project was significantly more elaborate in design and complexity of construction than originally estimated with the Theatre essentially being rebuilt from Façade to Proscenium Arch. The rebuild and restoration had significant challenges throughout, making it one of the most intricate building projects in the earthquake damaged Christchurch CBD with an overall rebuild cost of NZ$40M.
New Termitis
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