Christchurch City Council’s Civic Offices are open to the public and most of the Council staff who were working there prior to the February earthquake have now returned to work there.
The building was closed and underwent a full engineering assessment after the 23 December aftershocks before re-opening on 10 January.
Minor repairs that were identified as a result of these assessments were completed before engineers cleared the building for staff and public use. The repairs that were required included non-structural repairs to the plasterboard in the fire stairs and the public space. Some minor concrete repairs were also carried out.
All the usual services are currently available to the public. They include:
• Rates payments, rebates and remissions
• Parking fine payments
• Ordering and collection of property files
• Dog registrations
• Provision of drainage plans
• Building consent, resource consent and subdivision consent services.
The main public entrance to the building is Hereford Street from which customers are able to easily access all services. There is also access to the building from Worcester Boulevard.
The Council’s postal address is PO Box 237, Christchurch 8140 and the phone number is (03) 941 8999 .
Engineering reports post-September, February and June earthquakes
The owners of the building – the Joint Venture between the Council and Ngai Tahu Property – commissioned Powell Fenwick Consultants to conduct a detailed engineering review of the building following the September, February and June earthquakes. This Powell Fenwick report also included a peer review by Opus International Ltd. Click here to read more information about the engineering reports.
The Council also commissioned Beca to conduct the independent engineering review after the release of the Powell Fenwick report in August. The purpose of the Beca report was to assess Powell Fenwick's approach to the repair work and its assessment of the damage. It concludes that Powell Fenwick's assessment and repair work is "reasonable and in keeping with current practice".
The Powell Fenwick assessment following the building code amendment of 19 May 2011
As part of its investigations into the Civic Offices, the Joint Venture also asked Powell Fenwick to assess the building in relation to the New Building Standard, which was introduced earlier this year as a result of the 22 February earthquake. There is currently no change to the standard for buildings of the size and scale of the Civic Offices so engineers have assessed it against the amended increased code for smaller buildings. It has been assessed as meeting 133% of this code. Any future code changes would need to be significant to result in the building dropping below code requirements for a new building. This has also been reviewed by Beca engineers, who have concluded that it is a reasonable assessment. Read the Powell Fenwick assessment
Building history
The Council moved into its Hereford Street premises in August 2010 and the doors opened to the public on 23 August.
The first Council meeting was held in the refurbished premises, originally the New Zealand Post facility, on 26 August, with the Governor General His Excellency The Honourable Sir Anand Satyanand officially opening the building on Saturday 28 August 2010.
