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New Regent Street Restoration

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Completed 2013

Christchurch Central

TEAM Christchurch

NZIA AWARDS 2013 - Sustainable Architecture

New Regent Street is a precinct of 40 individually owned shops built in the Spanish Mission Revival Style, designed by Francis Willis in 1932 and successfully restored following the Christchurch Earthquakes in 2013. 

 

The original New Regent Street was opened in April 1932, one of the few developments occurring in post-depression Christchurch. It was made a public road after World War II, then pedestrianized with a tramline in 1994 and it was a vibrant part of the city prior to the Canterbury Earthquakes. 

 

The 2010 Canterbury Earthquakes badly damaged the buildings and in the immediate aftermath, the future of New Regent Street was under threat. Team Architects Christchurch worked with a committed group of building owners and a team of consultants to lead a repair and reconstruction project, with the main objective to return their properties back to their pre-earthquake condition.
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Much of the Ground Floor structure and finishes had been compromised, so the project became a balance of protecting and retaining the surviving original fabric, while introducing new structure and finishes in a sympathetic manner.

The original patterned tiles were sourced on a close-as-possible matching basis.  New shop fronts and stairs were constructed based on the pattern of the original fabric. A new continuous concrete floor slab was laid to strengthen the structure, and recycled tongue & groove flooring overlaid.

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New Regent Street was re-opened in April 2013, 81 years after the original, at a time that Christchurch again needed a boost of optimism. The project provided an important message that the devastating earthquakes had not destroyed all of the city's valuable Architectural Heritage.

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