Oxford Terrace
Wed Jan 21 2026
Oxford Terrace
66 Oxford Terrace: Turning an earthquake damaged, vacant building into a low damage apartment building
This twelve-storey plus basement residential apartment building in Central Christchurch was damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes. As a result, it lay empty for ten years before our client bought it and held a design competition to develop a structural solution to economically save the building. We, along with our design partner Russell Poole of Phoenix Consulting, presented a novel idea and won the competition.
We are now charged with designing the seismic strengthening and alterations to the building so that it can be reoccupied in 2022. Our design exceeds the client’s brief by incorporating low damage technology
Benefits of having us on the team:
-
We presented a novel seismic strengthening approach, which involved adding New Zealand manufactured and designed seismic devices by Tectonus at the bottom of the building to act like shock absorbers (a bit like the suspension in a car). This required sophisticated non-linear time history and non-linear static pushover analyses to ensure the solution works on such a tall building.
-
Our solution avoids the need to demolish a substantial building, reducing the negative impact on the environment and additional costs associated with full reconstruction.
-
We are changing and improving the way the building resists earthquakes, transitioning it into a low damage structure that, in the event of a future earthquake, has a much better chance of remaining occupied.
- We value engineered the foundation design, cutting the cost by 50% and improving buildability by eliminating the need for ground anchors.
Share This:
More Blog Posts:
B405 School of EngineeringWed Jan 21 2026
Aquinas College – J BlockWed Jan 21 2026
Elizabeth Knox Retirement HomeWed Jan 21 2026