Highgate Presbyterian Church, demolition re-think

Cr Benson-Pope: "We can’t afford, as a city, to lose key iconic buildings like this."

Demolition by neglect, demolition by furphies, consents gained through choice of improbably high/low estimates of costs & benefits - well done Cr Benson-Pope: "DCC was happy to help get an accurate report on the structural status of the building." (emphasis by WIfD ed)

Christ with plough’, designed by Ken Bunton, executed by Roy Miller, 1968.

 executed by Roy Miller, 1968.

Monday, 25 November 2019

Confidence church can be saved

By John Lewis

...The planned demolition of the Dunedin church was halted by Southern Presbytery commissioners Stephen Christensen and Kerry Enright last week, following an appeal by parishioner Tony Borick on October 30.
Mr Borick’s appeal said the decision to demolish the church had been based on "misleading, inaccurate, and incomplete information provided to the congregation by the parish council".
While his concerns were dismissed, the commissioners believed the congregation needed more detailed information, and directed the parish council to obtain a detailed independent engineering evaluation of the building’s structure and an informed estimate of the costs that would be incurred to make the building structurally safe....

........"The DCC heritage fund had a discussion about the situation at a recent meeting, and certainly the heritage fund committee agreed that it would be prepared to make a contribution — not yet determined in size — to make sure that work happens."
In addition to that, he said DCC heritage adviser Andrea Farminer had done a lot of work with the parties involved, about other options that might be possible for the reuse or reconfiguration of the building, once strengthened....   https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/confidence-church-can-be-saved