Abstract:
The Heritage Hotel (aka Old Government Building) is a prominent unreinforced masonry Italian High Renaissance palazzo building located in Christchurch, New Zealand, that is listed as a Category I historic place. In 1991 the Christchurch City Council purchased the building to prevent its demolition and to preserve its historical significance to the city. In 1995 the Heritage Hotel building was seismically retrofitted to fully meet the NZ Building code (NZS 4203:1992). The retrofit work included partial building demolition, installation of new structural lateral load-resistant systems, and the retrofit and refurbishment of individual building elements. The total cost of the retrofit and refurbishment in 1995 was approximately NZ$3.75 million. Detailed observations following the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes showed that the building was subject to only minor damage after the September 2010 earthquake. While the February 2011 event caused some damage to exterior stonework and flooding in the basement due to liquefaction, the damage was easily repaired and the building was fully functional by September 2013. The seismic retrofit of the Heritage Hotel allowed for an important heritage aspect of the city to be retained for future generations. Reported herein are details of the seismic retrofit and post-earthquake performance observations.
