Posts tagged Central city

Aerial photo comparisons of before & after – the CBD

Many of the CBD demolitions were mandated under the CERA emergency powers. This meant that those demolitions were carried out quickly so it was important to capture the changes for the research archive before too many buildings were demolished.  Ross regularly walked the CBD to photograph the changes from April 27 2011.  Our first aerial shoot was arranged in October 2011 after several months of feverish demolition activity.

It was particularly important to include Cathedral Square in this comparison as it was, and hopefully will again be, the centre of the city from which most activity radiates.

The top image was taken from that first aerial shoot so there are already “holes” showing up where buildings had been demolished in the 8 months since the most damaging earthquake in February 2011.

However the lower image taken in October 2014 shows a very different story. Almost all the CBD demolitions are complete leaving over 80% of the land vacant.

There are plenty of signs of rebuild activity starting. When the next photo shoot occurs in six months time there’ll be an abundance of changes to see.

Return to the Central City Red zone

Today, we were back in the red zone after our trip to Vietnam, where Moira was teaching a librarianship course at the Hanoi University of Culture.  Spending a few weeks in a completely different environment  has given us a fresh perspective on the central city.  How long ago it seems that CERA was telling us that they hoped to open up the cordon entirely by April 2012.  The centre of the city is still an active demolition zone with the sound of heavy machinery all around. 

It seems that the number of buildings still to be demolished stays about the same number, as new buildings are added to the demolition list, as fast as others are demolished.  With so much gone, the centre of the city is becoming see through, with surprising vistas right across the city, where there never used to be a line of sight.