The Pacific Tower, located in the

central city In urban planning, a core city, principal city metropolitan core, or central city, is the largest or most important city or cities of a metropolitan area. A core city is surrounded by smaller satellite cities, towns, and suburbs. A central city i ...

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 / ...

, New Zealand, has since its construction in 2010 been the city's tallest building at in height, succeeding the

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and the

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

building. It is also the tallest building in the world further south than

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. A major user of the building is the 171-room Rendezvous Hotel. The building was closed from the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake until 1 May 2013 for repairs. Levels 1 to 14 are used for the hotel, levels 15 to 22 are apartments and Level 23 is for services and plant room.

History

Pacific Tower was one of three high rises that were constructed in 2010; the other two were the HSBC Tower in Worcester Boulevard, and the

Novotel Hotel Novotel is a French midscale hotel brand owned by Accor. Created in 1967 in France, the company grew into what became the Accor group in 1983, and Novotel remained a pillar brand of Accor's multi-brand strategy. Novotel manages 559 hotels in 65 ...

in Cathedral Square. All three of these buildings survived the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, unlike many of the older high rises. The lower floors are occupied by a hotel, and upper floors hold apartments. The hotel initially opened under the name The Marque, but was later rebranded as Rendezvous Hotel. The owner of Pacific Tower intended to have it open again by March 2012 in time for the

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, tapping into the visitor market at a time when no other large hotels had reopened. However, the

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA; Māori: ''Te Mana Haumanu ki Waitaha'') was the public service department of New Zealand charged with coordinating the rebuild of Christchurch and the surrounding areas following the 22 Februar ...

required additional structural checks, which found significant problems, and the owner intended to open again before the second anniversary of the

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 ...

. The reopening was further delayed and a new date of 10 April 2013 was announced, which was again not met. The latest date for reopening was set for 1 May 2013, and on that day, the hotel with 171 rooms reopened for business.

Earthquake performance

Pacific Tower survived the earthquakes very well, where just one fractured active link required replacing, and a further three weakened links were removed for testing by the two civil engineering universities in New Zealand, in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

and

. The eccentrically braced frame (EBF) link that fractured was the first failure of this building element worldwide (another EBF fractured in one of the city's parking buildings) and was thus of scientific interest. Structural engineer John Scarry, who is known in New Zealand as an ardent critic of his peers, praised the design of the Pacific Tower and the HSBC building in Worcester Boulevard (another steel frame building) as good examples of how buildings should be designed. The earthquake performance demonstrates the resilience and economic value of steel-framed buildings—any damaged components can be removed and replaced. Completed in 2010 and comprising eccentrically braced steel frames cast integrally with composite metal deck slabs, the building also incorporates several innovative features. These include car stackers, cranked braces and ‘super’ moment-resisting frames at ground floor level. The latter removed the need for braces from the front elevations of the building, allowing unobstructed views. These features all helped the building to withstand the extreme forces it experienced during the many earthquakes of 2010 and 2011.

References

External links

Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission report
including description of Pacific Tower (pages 7–9) {{S-end Residential buildings completed in 2010 Hotels in Christchurch Apartment buildings in New Zealand 2011 Christchurch earthquake Skyscrapers in Christchurch 2010s architecture in New Zealand Skyscraper hotels in New Zealand Residential skyscrapers

History

Earthquake performance

See also

References

External links