Christchurch

When stars align

WORDS: KIM TRIEGAARDT • IMAGERY: MIKE HEYDON

Once significantly damaged by the Canterbury earthquakes, the Observatory Tower and the Biology building at The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora have been restored

It could be a remake of that classic scene from the 1980s historical sports drama Chariots of Fire. Students are racing around a Gothic cloister, but the Vangelis soundtrack is replaced by the excited shouts and boisterous laughter of children.

Philip Aldridge, Director of The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora, grins as we dodge youngsters on a school activity hurtling around Canterbury College’s School of Engineering, will be earthquake strengthened and then left for future restoration.

“Overall, it’s a huge success story that we were able to go so much further than we initially thought we would,” says Philip.

The last of the completed work has been on the Observatory Tower and Biology building, which wraps around the tower. It feels like a natural end point for the project, as the Observatory Tower became one of the most visible signs of the damage wrought by the quakes when it collapsed onto the South Quad.

The 18-metre-high Observatory Tower and adjoining buildings have been restored using as much of the original material as could be salvaged, with the project team able to go back to Mountfort’s original external plan.

In what would turn out to be Mountfort’s last contract with Canterbury College, he designed the tower specially to house the Townsend Teece Telescope – an equatorial telescope built in Britain and donated to the college by early settler James Townsend in 1891.

Carving curved walls using basalt and Oamaru stone was a challenge for the specialist stonemasons working on the Observatory Tower; rebuilding the tower’s dome, which was originally topped with canvas and wood, was another challenge

the stone columns and across the quadrangle. This is the community engagement he is so excited to see coming back to The Arts Centre precinct in Christchurch.

“It’s that much closer now that we have finished the bulk of the restoration work,” he says.

The complex of Gothic Revival buildings was once home to the region’s first higher education facility, Canterbury College, which evolved into the University of Canterbury. More recently it has been the scene of one of the world’s largest and most complex restoration projects after the buildings were damaged by the 2010–11 Canterbury earthquakes.

The buildings – the first of which were designed in the Gothic style by Benjamin Mountfort in 1873, with additions embracing the Gothic style and made in the first quarter of the 21st century by a series of architects – were well insured. However, the $168 million payout didn’t come close to the $290 million the restoration was originally scoped to cost.

“We did manage to bring that cost right down,” says Philip.

“Every project we’ve done has come in on budget. We were able to raise enough money, including $10 million from the Observatory Tower’s ‘Be a star’ fundraiser, to complete 20 out of 22 of the buildings.”

The remaining two buildings, which originally housed LOCATION

Christchurch is located near the southern end of Pegasus Bay in the South Island.

See more of The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora: youtube.com/ HeritageNewZealand PouhereTaonga

for the project team. When Mountfort’s plans eventually came to light, the restoration team was pleasantly surprised to find the specifications matched almost exactly the metal dome they had built.

Storyboards in the tower now tell how it took a week to sift through 35 tonnes of rubble to find the remains of the telescope. Miraculously, the lens was intact, which meant the telescope could be reconstructed.

The late Graeme Kershaw, a technician in the University of Canterbury’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, painstakingly repaired the telescope in a job that turned out to bookend his career.

Not only did one of his first jobs at the university involve working on the telescope, but his final task after restoring the quake-damaged telescope was to hand-stitch the leather cap that goes over the lens.

Reinstating the 154-year-old Townsend Teece Telescope is the final step in the observatory project. Once the telescope is back in place, regular free public viewing sessions on clear Friday nights will again become part of the city’s weekend activities.

Christine Whybrew, Acting Director Southern for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, is a Cantabrian with fond memories of the Observatory Tower.

“It was where we went on Friday evenings,” she says.

“People talk about the Town Hall being the living room of the city, but The Arts Centre has always had a vibrancy that makes it another one of those spaces. It’s the place you can hang out and enjoy a range of activities.”

For both Philip and Christine, there has been a silver lining to the rebuild. “The restoration

mana whenua: those with tribal authority over land or territory by virtue of possession and/or occupation

has given us the opportunity to weave in te aō Māori, the Māori worldview, which was not a strong feature in this complex of colonial buildings, into its future,” says Philip.

“What previously was silent in the landscape, we are now able to express in our built environment as well,” says Christine.

Visitors will be able to look down from the Observatory Tower balcony onto the picturesque South Quad, which has new paving that tells the story of Ngāi Tūāhuriri as mana whenua of the site.

The Canterbury Astronomical Society, which meets monthly at the university, hosted a Matariki event in June and is planning a Pacific wayfinding exhibition.

With a nod to the economic realities of the ongoing funding of the precinct, The Arts Centre has turned the Biology building adjoining the observatory into the 33-room Observatory Hotel.

What were once the prep rooms and senior laboratory on the ground floor are now the Observatory Hotel’s drawing room and library bar.

Upstairs, the former professor’s room is now a business centre, and the lecture room will become a public exhibition space.

Built at the height of the Arts and Crafts movement, the refurbished rooms echo that era with William Morris prints and local handcrafted furniture and fittings. Features like a centuryold bricked-up window and most of the tower’s original staircase, which was meticulously restored, have been left in place. Within the fabric of the building and well hidden are state-of-the-art seismic strengthening, Wi-Fi and artesian heating.

Christine says the heritage restoration has been exemplary: “They have done a remarkable job with limited means.”

Now the public finally has the opportunity to see it first-hand.

heritage.org.nz/the-list/ details/7301