Should earthquake-damaged heritage buildings be demolished ASAP?

9:52 AM Monday Mar 7, 2011

Photo / Dean Purcell.

Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says he has no desire to "bring out the bulldozers and take Christchurch to the ground", but he does want to return the city to normal as soon as possible.

At a media briefing on Saturday, Mr Brownlee said if he had his way, most of Christchurch's heritage buildings would be bowled the next day - prompting concerns that demolitions would be rushed through.

On Radio New Zealand this morning, Mr Brownlee said Christchurch had 1600 buildings rated somewhere between category 1 and category 4 heritage buildings.

He said a number of those buildings should "realistically" have been demolished after the September 4 quake but that he believed heritage orders preventing their destruction had been "far too precious".

Should earthquake-damaged heritage buildings be demolished ASAP? Here is the latest selection of Your Views:

Buzz (New Zealand) | 10:34AM Monday, 07 Mar 2011

It will take too long to try and save them all. Mr Brownlee is right in that we should concentrate on the iconic ones. Enough with the nostalgia - it's time to build a futuristic, safe & sustainable city.

Robyn (New Zealand) | 10:35AM Monday, 07 Mar 2011

Christchurch's heritage buildings are a part of this city. We should do what we can to save those that ARE saveable, but if they are precarious and dangerous, then a hard call needs to be made.

Gerry Brownlee seems keen to just bowl everything over.which makes me question whether he is a true Cantabrian. Can you imagine ChCh without the Cathedral, the Arts Centre of the Museum? Save what can be saved, so that our history will continue.

EasyTiger (New Zealand) | 10:41AM Monday, 07 Mar 2011

They need to be assessed asap. I think people are realistic about the loss of many of Christchurch's beautiful old buildings, but we should aim to assess them properly and only demolish those that are dangerous. There will be no need to demolish many. Gery needs to respect the processes and laws - and support the Historic Places Trust and Council who are doing a great job. He's not the boss of everything.