Hotel Grand Chancellor, Christchurch

The Hotel Grand Chancellor was a major four-star hotel in the centre of Christchurch in New Zealand, one of eleven Hotel Grand Chancellor establishments across Australia and New Zealand. The hotel was located at 161 Cashel Street, close to the city's City Mall central shopping precinct.

View of the Grand Chancellor from Cashel Street just minutes after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake occurred

For a long time, it was the city's tallest building standing at 85 metres (279 ft) and 26 storeys,[1] but was overtaken in 2010 by the 86.5 metres (284 ft) tall Pacific Tower.[2]

The building was built in 1986 for office use by Forbes Construction. In 1996 it was converted to a hotel by Fletchers Construction with 15 floors of hotel accommodation, and 12 floors of car parking, also housing conference facilities for businesses.[1]

The building suffered severe damage from an earthquake in 2011 and was demolished in 2012. Initial plans to rebuild the hotel were replaced by a shopping and office complex. Another hotel is planned to be built at another location.

Christchurch earthquakes

The hotel survived the September 2010 earthquake without any known structural damage, but was badly damaged by the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake five months later.

The collapse of a key supporting shear wall "D5-6" located in the south-east corner of the building led to the visible leaning of the building to one side. It also contributed to the staircases (above level 14) collapsing.[3] Above the 14th floor, 36 people were trapped and spent several hours in the damaged building during a series of large aftershocks before being all successfully rescued.[4][5]

Fear that the building would totally collapse hampered search and rescue missions in the vicinity.[6] The building was eventually stabilised and on 4 March it was decided the building would be demolished over the following six months using a complicated deconstruction processes from the top downwards.[7] The roof of the hotel was removed in early November 2011. A protective fence was to be built around the building to catch debris from the demolition and then the demolition of the building was to proceed from January 2012.[8] The hotel was demolished by Ward Demolition.

Rebuild

The Grand Hotels International, owners of the former Hotel Grand Chancellor, Christchurch gained city council approval to rebuild on the site. The new hotel would have been on base isolators at 50 metres (160 ft) high and have 12 floors in the hotel and 5-floor office block in the front. The new design was from Warren and Mahoney architects and was to be built by Fletcher Construction, and finished by 2015.[9]

In April 2014, it was announced that the hotel would not be rebuilt on its original site, and would be replaced by shops and offices instead. The Grand Hotels International group expressed interest in building the hotel on a different site in the city.[10]

In September 2019, Grand Central confirmed that a replacement hotel would be on a new site on the southwest corner of Manchester and Armagh streets.[11]

References
  1. "Hotel Grand Chancellor". Emporis GmbH. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  2. "Christchurch's tallest buildings – Top 20". Emporis GmbH. Archived from the original on 31 October 2013. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  3. "Structural Performance of Christchurch CBD Buildings in the 22 February 2011 Aftershock" (PDF). New Zealand Department of Building and Housing.
  4. ""Help is on the Way"". Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  5. Mulligan, Jesse (21 February 2020). "Help Is On The Way: TV doco remembers the 2011 Christchurch earthquake". Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  6. "Hotel Grand Chancellor on verge of collapse". The New Zealand Herald. 23 February 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
  7. Hartevelt, John (5 March 2011). "Christchurch earthquake: Demolitions key to CBD access". stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 7 March 2011. Updated
  8. "Hotel's roof is off – now just 28 floors of concrete to go". stuff.co.nz. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
  9. McDonald, Liz (23 September 2013). "12-storey building gets go-ahead". The Press. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  10. McDonald, Liz (18 April 2014). "New plans for Hotel Grand Chancellor site". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
  11. McDonald, Liz (11 September 2019). "Grand Chancellor confirms site for new hotel in central Christchurch". Retrieved 23 February 2020.
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