Christchurch Convention Centre

The foundations have been laid (concrete poured in November 2017) for a new facility which Christchurch had been screaming out for (and against) long since before earthquakes shook this city in 2011.

The movements for and against a convention centre waged verbal war on one another for decades before, in this case, progress won over. In 1997, the modest glass-fronted centre was opened on Kilmore Street and the conventions began rolling in. It hosted an APEC assembly and had started to cement its position in the Christchurch landscape, when the first severe earthquake struck. In 2012, the centre's short life ended in demolition rubble.

Attempts to secure a public/private partnership for the replacement 'anchor project' failed when costs blew out from a quarter to a half a billion dollars. The government then took the job firmly in hand, via Otakaro Ltd, the development agency for the regenerating city.

A Ngai Tahu Research Centre paper formed the basis of the underpinning values before architects Woods Bagot in conjunction with Warren and Mahoney, got to work. An associated essay around the concept of a great hall was attached, and a great hall the convention centre will have. The design concept is around the braided rivers of Canterbury, and the patterns of Ngai Tahu, intent on creating flow and movement.
To be named Whare Runanga, the new facility is on a scale not seen before in New Zealand, taking up the entire city block bordered by Oxford Terrace and the Avon River, Colombo Street and Cathedral Square. Part of Gloucester Street has permanently closed, and considerable planning has gone into the landscape architecture surrounding the buildings. It will be able to host 3500 delegates, and include a hotel of 200 rooms.
Australian company, CPB, are the contractors and Hoteliers Accor are pencilled in as managers of the grand complex when it is completed in 2020.

The whole story of the development of the new centre is outlined by John McCrone in the Christchurch Press.

The Christchurch Convention Centre is shortlisted for a 2017 World Architecture Festival Award - Culture: Future Projects.

In the meantime, the construction fence surrounding the new development has been decorated with a comic strip which, by virtue of its sheer size, is the subject of an application for entry to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Image Credits: Otakaro Ltd