All welcome. Free entry.
NZHPT Win Clark flyer (PDF, 606 KB)
Win Clark is consulting structural engineer for NZ Historic Places Trust.
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Enquiries to Owen Graham, Area Manager – Otago/Southland
New Zealand Historic Places Trust/Pouhere Taonga
Floor 4, 109 Princes Street, PO Box 5467, Dunedin 9058, New Zealand
Phone 03 4779871 | DDI 03 4702362 | Cell 027 4316701 | Fax 03 4773893
Shop online at http://www.historic.org.nz/
Help keep New Zealand’s heritage places alive
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
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Filed under #eqnz, Architecture, Business, Construction, Design, Economics, Events, Heritage, Innovation, Inspiration, Name, NZHPT, People, Project management, Property, Town planning, Urban design
Tagged as #eqnz, Architecture, Brick, Building performance, Design, Earthquake engineering, Earthquake proneness, Economic criteria, Engineers, Historic heritage, New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Project management, Stone, Structural criteria, Structural engineering, Structural Engineering Society New Zealand (SESOC), Technology, Unreinforced Masonry (URM), Unreinforced masonry buildings
Heritage New Zealand Issue 125 Winter 2012 pp10-11
Profile: Win Clark
The earthquake engineer (PDF, 1.3 MB)
### ODT Online Mon, 9 Jul 2012
Empty heritage buildings better than nothing, trust says
By Debbie Porteous
Finding out a heritage building is “earthquake prone” is not a death knell for the building, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust says. [Trust Otago-Southland area manager] Owen Graham warned people should not make rash decisions if assessments came back showing buildings were below the required strength. Anyone who was concerned could contact the trust, which could advise owners about what their assessments meant and on various techniques and approaches they could take. There were practical, cost-effective solutions for strengthening buildings, he said.
If no way could be found for a building to be brought up to the required structural standards, vacating the building and leaving it empty would be preferable to demolition, Mr Graham said.
The future of Dunedin’s heritage buildings was so topical the trust was bringing in a specialist to give a free public talk on building strengthening.
Read more
ODT’s Debbie Porteous didn’t redeem herself with today’s front page offering on NZHPT ‘message’. In my view, she failed to ask the trust’s area manager what it would really mean to empty buildings and leave them standing (last resort), unable to return any income to the owner… He would have some reasonable answers for that.
Mothballing is an approach taken by many urban authorities – where important townscapes or significant buildings are held for later preservation when economic conditions ease. The buildings are made weathertight; temporary support frames, braces and ties are introduced where required (stabilisation); and sometimes surrounding ground conditions are altered to ensure water is taken away from building foundations and structural components. Various methods are adopted to make the building “safe”.
In these cases the building(s) may have been purchased by the authority, or a rates holiday approved for the owners. Other approaches apply depending on city/district/zone economics (location, predominant land uses, area strategies), levels of statutory heritage protection, financial means of building owners and size of property portfolios for cross-subsidy, granting of alternative development rights, and so on.
A lot of complex factors are taken into account prior to mothballing, but it’s a common and accepted practice.
At Dunedin, by virtue of the types and condition of heritage building stock present, accessible bulldings of good floor size can be picked up relatively cheaply for earthquake strengthening and adaptive reuse – and be made to pay their way.
Right now this activity, at a certain scale of building, can deliver more cheaply than new build in providing prestige leasing space; and good tenants are available.
The developers of these properties are likely to have a high level of expertise in feasibility, design, engineering and project management (or the ability to teamwork with colleagues/co-investors to bring that in; or they’ll buy it in using locals well recognised in the building sector for successful retrofitting, adaptive reuse and conservation work). The developers – not scared of pitching in with the labouring work – are also likely to have a proven track record with commercial bankers and insurance brokers.
In a city with a heavily indebted council, the options for assisting building owners are severely constrained. In parts of Europe central government pays for strengthening work to be done. Instead, we have Dave Cull muddling along before the foul winds of Gerry Brownlee hit. Brownlee’s treatment of Christchurch will come to haunt legislation for historic heritage nationwide, before long.
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ODT sub editors and online editors have their fun, don’t they. Pull a mean line from the reporter’s final draft, then find a photo some dude cropped from something else in preference to using the professional ODT file photo held. They like doing this to DCC officials and councillors too.
### ODT Online Mon, 9 Jul 2012
Opinion
Bricks and sawtooth roofs abound
By Tony Eyre
The Dunedin City Council’s recent district plan change to allow for the possibility of a much truncated harbourside zone for the development of cafes, apartments and public open spaces in the area south of the Steamer Basin was announced without too much evident fanfare. The original proposal was mooted more than a decade ago and, after opposition from business groups and an appeal to the Environment Court, the council agreed to drop stage two of the plan which incorporated a section of the historic harbourside industrial area between Fryatt and Mason Sts. Much of the block of industrial land enclosed between Fryatt, Wickliffe, Ward and Thomas Burns Sts was progressively reclaimed from the sea from the 1860s. Dunedin’s rail corridor has dissected this enclave from the inner city and today the industries within make a huge economic contribution to the city’s wellbeing.
Read more
• Tony Eyre is a Dunedin writer.
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NZHPT registered the Dunedin Harbourside Historic Area on 4 April 2008.
See area map in the following reports.
Summary | Full report
For the sake of examining two polar absurdities of argument, let’s note the stadium as an money-earning attraction compared with a city with a range of cultural attractions, wildlife, food and active recreational opportunities, with a built environment that though warehouse vs warehouse, commercial building vs commercial building may not be unique but whose whole arrangement – streetscapes, vistas – is definitely Dunedin NZ not some-generic-where else. Which is going to provide long-term value, huh? Someone whisper the answer to the council, please.