Christchurch: 'When they go high, we go low'

One of Christchurch's tallest new residential buildings, The Spire, on Kilmore St. (Image: Oliver Lewis)

Fri, 21 Jan 2022

Ever since the earthquakes, Christchurch has been a kind of bonsai city, defined by its relative lack of height. The tallest building in the city, the 86-metre Pacific Tower on Gloucester St, was completed in 2010, the same year the Canterbury earthquake sequence started. As a result of the quakes, more than 1200 buildings within the four avenues were demolished.Perhaps unsurprisingly, developers have been wary of building up since. And why would they? Compared to cities like Wellington and Auckland, Christchurch has an abundance of land,...

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