The Hotel Grand Chancellor was a major four-star hotel in the

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Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

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, one of eleven

Hotel Grand Chancellor Hotel Grand Chancellor is a hotel chain that operates throughout Australia and New Zealand. History The Hotel Grand Chancellor, Christchurch was severely damaged in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and was believed to be in an imminen ...

establishments across

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and New Zealand. The hotel was located at 161 Cashel Street, close to the city's City Mall central shopping precinct. For a long time, it was the city's tallest building standing at and 26 storeys, but was overtaken in 2009 by the tall Pacific Tower. 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. 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 A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east ...

five months later. The collapse of a key supporting

shear wall In structural engineering, a shear wall is a vertical element of a system that is designed to resist in-plane lateral forces, typically wind and seismic loads. In many jurisdictions, the International Building Code and International Residential Co ...

"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. 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. Fear that the building would totally collapse hampered search and rescue missions in the vicinity. 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. Updated 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. 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 high and have 12 floors in the hotel and 5-floor office block in the front. The new design was from

Warren and Mahoney Warren and Mahoney is an international architectural and interior design practice - one of the few third generation architectural practices in the history of New Zealand architecture. It is a highly awarded architectural practice, with offices ...

architects and was to be built by

Fletcher Construction The Fletcher Construction Company Limited is a New Zealand construction company and a subsidiary of Fletcher Building. Together with Higgins Contractors Ltd it makes up the Construction division of Fletcher Building. Fletcher Construction is wid ...

, and finished by 2015. 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. 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.

References

External links

Christchurchnz.com HGC pageDepartment of Building and Housing Report on the Structural Performance of the Hotel Grand Chancellor (PDF 15.4 MB, 87 pages)

Related photos etc. at the Canterbury Earthquake Digital Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grand Chancellor Grand Hotels International Buildings and structures demolished as a result of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake Buildings and structures demolished in 2012 Hotel buildings completed in 1986 Skyscrapers in Christchurch Defunct hotels in New Zealand 1980s architecture in New Zealand Hotels in Christchurch Skyscraper hotels in New Zealand Demolished hotels Former skyscrapers Brutalist architecture in New Zealand