Shinning Bright in the Light

The Knox Church rebuild is just about finished and they hope to be open sometime in late October or early November. September 15, 2013 was when they started working on the Church so they have achieved at lot in a short time.

I have taken many shots of it on the way. Now I am now noticing the changers in the copper as it is Patinaing. The front of the Church is still shining brightly and the sides are getting much darker.

The type of engineering involved is understood to have never been used before and is considered a world first. The concrete buttresses range from 6.3m to 8.3m high with the largest buttress weighing approximately 13 tonne. Aurecon engineers proposed the idea of “rocking column” buttresses being used and completed the detail design of the buttresses. Wilkie and Bruce took the structural concept and added the architectural features to come up with the final look of the buttresses.

The post-tensioning keeps the load carrying capability and restores the column back to vertical after the earthquake. External dissipaters on the sides of the buttresses dissipate energy via yielding. All structural damage is therefore confined to these dissipaters which have been designed to be replaceable following an earthquake. Once the dissipaters are replaced the building would be back to its pre-earthquake strength.

The cost of the rebuild was expected to be $5.5 million which would have been made up from insurance, grants and support from the Knox Trust. Still another $2m was being sought through trust applications and donations.

Knox Church is a progressive congregation within the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and for more information on the Knox Church on the corner of Bealey and Victoria Street Christchurch, New Zealand.

Here are some more shots I took today.