Providing a safe and welcoming place for students to meet, gather and study
New life for a campus icon
Built in the 1970’s, the Puaka/James Hight building is the campus’s central library rising 53m above campus. It provides students with learning resources and study spaces as well as a communal food and services area on the ground floor. We managed the building’s repair, strengthening and strategic upgrades following the Canterbury earthquakes.
Repair and revitalisation
Our initial challenge was significant and immediate: to navigate the aftermath of the earthquake and make the building operational ASAP. This necessitated management of damage assessment and a staged repair strategy to keep as much of the building operational as possible. Through astute insurer negotiations we were able to put together a comprehensive package of structural strengthening and betterment works that included a revitalisation of the communal food and services area on the ground level, known as the Undercroft. We also managed an overhaul of the buildings services to bring it up to present day standards, as well as the installation of new windows, bathrooms, ceilings and flooring throughout the building.
Points of interest
- At 12 storeys, Puaka/James Hight is the largest building in the South Island outside the Christchurch CBD and was the first at UC to be strengthened and fully reoccupied following the earthquakes.
- The building was fully occupied throughout the floor-by-floor repair process, which required a great deal of planning and co-ordination with users.
- Evidence showed that the screws holding the original steel frame windows in place had sheared off in the earthquakes. We were able to negotiate a complete window replacement programme with the insurer, removing the damaged steel windows and replacing them with new aluminum double-glazed windows.
