The mayor of Christchurch has come up with a new plan for the city's quake-ravaged cathedral in the square. He's suggested making the ruins safe and then enclosing what's left in a massive glass case, allowing worshippers and tourists back inside.
Construction's underway of Christchurch’s new cardboard cathedral, a temporary structure the Anglicans say will house the spiritual heart of the city. But Mayor Bob Parker's come up with a more permanent idea.
“Keep the old, put it in a beautiful, embracing glass case and then look to the future with that design,” he says. “Create something inspirational.”
He suggests retaining as much of the cathedral walls as possible, restoring the organ and pews and removing the cracked roof before encasing it all in glass. Stained glass windows would hang from the ceiling, and the building would get a new spire to replace the one that collapsed in the quake.
But opinions were divided among the public.
“Oh I think it's a great idea,” Anthony Dow says. “I think it's new and inspirational. A great idea.”
Resident Joseph Duncan also liked the idea.
“I think it would be awesome to look out of the top: 'Hello sky.'”
But resident Jessica Garlick wasn’t so sure about it.
“I think we may as well scrap it all and start it all over again,” she says.
Mr Parker's idea was inspired by Norway's Hedmark Museum.
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority chief executive Roger Sutton was open to the idea.
“A lot of the places around the world that have been struck by natural disasters have kept some of the buildings that have been ruined and left them in that ruined state. And I think that would be a good thing for Christchurch to do as well.”
Jim Anderton, co-chairman of the Great Christchurch Buildings Trust, is fighting for a complete restoration of the cathedral.
“I thought of the Tui billboard – ‘Yeah right’,” he says. “Bob should take a bit of trouble to read a few facts.
“Firstly the cathedral is not in ruins. Does Bob have in mind getting a steel ball and smashing it into ruins so he can put a glass case over it?”
No price tag has been given and the Anglican Church declined to comment, but Mr Parker believes his vision would become a popular tourist attraction.
3 News
source: newshub archive
