Church buildings are among Dunedin's many heritage structures which the faith-filled structural engineer has saved.

You could say undertaking seismic structural assessments and campaigning for heritage buildings have been Robinson's life's work.

Church assessments

Robinson says churches are the most difficult heritage buildings to assess for safety and seismic strength.

"I've done seismic assessments of several churches including Knox Church here and St Joseph's Cathedral, and First Church in Invercargill.

"They are particularly challenging."

He explains that church structures usually have "very tall interior spaces and usually have a steeple, which people always say will topple but won't necessarily, as some of the earthquakes in Italy have demonstrated."

Saving them when possible is important to him. He mentions St Patrick's Basilica in Oamaru.

"It's beautiful inside, because it's got that honey-coloured patina on the Oamaru stone. It gives the stonework and the building a beautiful soft glow."

The loss of others he finds distressing.

One church that he still mourns is Christchurch's Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament - aka the Basilica.

It was the most important building of its kind in the southern hemisphere, he says. But it's gone now.

"Its assessment was incomplete in terms of remediation, given its prime importance in heritage and ecclesiastical terms.

"The Catholic Diocese of Canterbury made the wrong decision to demolish it, and I'll be interested to see what they rebuild in its place."

He feels quite differently about the destruction of the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

"I don't mourn the loss of it. But they're going to rebuild it" he says.

Source

• Otago Daily Times

The terms of the sale are confidential to the parties and settlement of the transaction will occur in late May 2021.

Late last year the church announced its plan to build a school, church headquarters, parking building, and a replacement for the quake-damaged Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

The new Catholic cathedral to be built between Victoria Square and the Avon River.

The old cathedral, on Barbadoes St, is to be demolished.

The church has already bought most of the land for the new precinct - which will occupy the block bordered by Colombo, Armagh and Manchester sts and Oxford Tce.

Bishop Paul Martin said the agreement ensured "that the diocese's vision for the precinct on which the land is situated will now be able to be fully met."

The new precinct will be built for the diocese by the Carter Group, which is progressively selling its own large chunk of land on the block, including the former PricewaterhouseCoopers site, to the church.

MCK Managing Director Mr BK Chiu has thanked the Bishop and his representatives for the constructive way in which negotiations were handled over the last few weeks.

The Bishop also acknowledged MCK's cooperation to ensuring that the Diocese's vision for the precinct on which the land is situated will now be able to be fully met.

Designs for the new cathedral and a timetable for construction are not yet completed.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• links.sgx.com
• Image: stuff.co.nz

The purchases are likely to be the first stakes in a larger site for a complex which may include a new cathedral.

Property and company records reveal the Catholic diocese has bought 10 vacant properties in the central city block bordered by Armagh and Manchester streets and Oxford Tce.

At 4340 square metres or nearly half a hectare, the church's new sites occupy more than a third of the vacant city block extending from Manchester to Colombo streets and adjoining the city's new Avon River promenade.

Eight of the properties are opposite New Regent St and another two on the corner of Colombo St and Oxford Tce.

The eight adjoining sites were sold to the church for $11m by Christchurch investor Ben Gough's company Tailorspace.

Sites, opposite Victoria Square and the Christchurch Town Hall, remain in the hands of Victoria Apartments Ltd.

The rest of the land on the block comprises several sites owned by the Carter Group.

This includes the derelict former PWC and the former Copthorne hotel site facing Victoria Square owned by Millennium and Copthorne Hotels.

A spokesman for the diocese confirmed the purchases but said any more information would come from the bishop when he was ready to make a statement.

The diocese announced in August it would demolish its earthquake-damaged Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, once considered by some to be New Zealand's finest building, and rebuild on a more central site.

When the decision to pull down the existing Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament was announced last month it triggered a vow by heritage enthusiasts to fight to save the building.

Christchurch Heritage Trust chair Dr Anna Crighton called it "the best and the most significant cathedral in the southern hemisphere".

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

Scalan was a small, clandestine community set up in the 18th century in the Braes of Glenlivet at a time when the religion was illegal.

The planning committee of the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) has now granted planning permission to Crown Estate Scotland to carry out a variety of works at the site.

These include the restoration and repair of the north and south mill buildings, bringing a timber waterwheel back into working order and creating new access paths. Read more