On Mar 3, 2012, at 4:06 AM, Bob Sullivan wrote: > Dave, > I'm sad to hear all this. The Cathedral was/is a perfect anchor to > that 'square' in city center. $100 million is a lot of cost per > square foot. I've got to believe you could build a modern replica for > a lot less. Christchurch will be filled with modern architecture when > you get done. A modern homage of your old cathedral would be OK.
That's one plan that's been put forward, to make a new one in the same shape as the old one but with modern design & materials. They're demolishing it down until the walls are about 2-3 metres high so who knows - they might be able to keep some of the stone and build it up from there. Most of the demolished heritage buildings have had their parts carefully catalogued and preserved. I'm told the Timeball Station in Lyttelton is to be fully rebuilt within about 5 years. I heard today that the Cathedral was originally going to be built from wood, but the powers that be decided they wanted a stone church like the ones "back home". IMHO the stone looked so much better than a wooden one could. A centerpiece landmark like that needs to be fairly imposing :) The rest of Cathedral Square needs a lot of work as well. Most of the surrounding buildings weren't very attractive and the drab grey paving stones were always a bit controversial. Some have suggested rebuilding the convention centre there. I think it just needs a bit more life with more cafés and restaurants, and maybe some decent shops. Dave -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
