Holmes and Naylor Love won GOLD for the Christ Church Cathedral Stabilisation Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Project at the ACE Awards 2023.
This is one of Aotearoa’s most iconic and significant reinstatement projects in history, posing very complex engineering and health & safety challenges – carefully managed through close collaboration with project stakeholders.
The Canterbury earthquakes of 2011 caused significant damage to the historic Cathedral. Stabilisation presented significant technical engineering, construction and health and safety challenges given the site constraints, biohazards, and the badly damaged structure. At the same time the work had to preserve the historical character and facilitate the Cathedral’s restoration phase.
ACE said “Holmes and Naylor Love are recognised for the expertise, commitment and a deep understanding of its structural challenges that had to be addressed to set up the cathedral for the project’s reinstatement phase.”
As well as this incredible win, we are proud to have been awarded MERIT for the Observatory Hotel at The Arts Centre – Christchurch Te Matatiki Toi Ora.
The Arts Centre’s F Block, which was structurally compromised during the 2010-2011 earthquakes, was restored to preserve the building’s heritage, strengthened, and repurposed to house the luxury hotel, bringing a vital revenue stream for the Arts Centre. Clever engineering helped restore this impressive heritage building to its former glory.
“Holmes is recognised for its expertise and commitment to preserving the heritage of this building while facilitating its repurposing as a hotel, and its collaborative, can-do attitude which has made this possible.” – ACE
About the ACE Awards:
New Zealand’s leading engineering consultants were celebrated at the 2023 ACE Awards Gala in Wellington on September 21. An industry calendar highlight, the awards recognise the consulting excellence that underpins some of the country’s most impactful projects – from shared pathways that provide low-carbon transport options to restorations of culturally significant buildings and equipment repairs to ensure business continuity. ACE Chief Executive Helen Davidson says the event is the pinnacle of achievement for the outstanding talent that exists within the country’s professional services consulting sector, especially at a time when these consultants are operating in a very complex environment.
