Revamp helps gallery stand up to earthquake

Chris Saines, director of the Auckland Art Gallery, takes the media on a tour of the redevelopment. Photo / Natalie Slade

As Auckland Art Gallery director Chris Saines (pictured) inspects the big makeover his buildings are having, he knows they are safe if the city is hit by an earthquake as big as the one that devastated Christchurch.

But that hasn't always been true.

Quake-proofing work has been done on the old art gallery buildings as part of a $121 million refurbishment.

Grant Thomas, project manager and engineer for Hawkins Construction on the gallery job, said that before the work was done, "the buildings' walls would have fallen out and floors come crashing down" if Auckland had been hit by a shake like the 7.1 magnitude quake that hit Christchurch on September 4.

Metal straps running through new floors in the 1887 and 1916 buildings provide rigid diaphragms because they are connected to steel inserted in the old walls.

New elements in the upgrade include metal rods rammed from top of the old building facades into the bottom of the ornate chateau-style structures, and foundation strengthening.

Mr Saines said the Christchurch disaster made him more certain of the need for the big upgrade.

"There's an immense amount of seismic strengthening in these buildings now," he said.

"Six or seven years ago, people were saying we didn't need to worry about that but we have had an appalling lesson.

The Christchurch Art Gallery has suffered no structural damage, only a few objects there were damaged."

The Auckland gallery will reopen in the middle of next year.