St Elmo Courts
St Elmo Courts was a residential building on the corner of Hereford and Montreal Street in the Central City of Christchurch in New Zealand. The seven floors comprehensive building was built in 1930 and used during the last years of its existence primarily as an office building. It has been classified by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Category II, but due to the damage caused by the Darfield Earthquake of 2010 and the later Christchurch Earthquake of 2011 it was demolished in March 2011.
History
The point at the intersection of Worcester and Montreal Street, on which there was the building that was once occupied by St Elmo Boarding House. This guest house was advertised as " upscale private accommodation ." It was replaced by St Elmo Courts, a 1929 building designed by BJ Ager. The building reflects an existing in the 1920s and 1930s in the major cities of New Zealand enthusiasm for larger residential blocks. The incentive was in the low-cost housing in a central location; The apartments offered modern amenities and built-in furniture. St Elmo Courts was built in 1930. Accordingly, in St Elmo Court, there was one-and two -bedroom apartments, many of which were later converted to office space.
After the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010, the building was marked with a yellow mark, which meant that access was limited. After the earthquake of February 22, 2011 the owner and insurer of the building agreed that the damages were too extensive to save the building. The demolition began on March 20.
Construction methods and building damage
St Elmo Court was a building with reinforced concrete frame whose walls were bricked. After the earthquake of September 4, 2010 diagonal shear cracks were visible in the facade in the pillar. A column had a shear fracture. The damage is increased by the earthquake of 22 February 2011.
Conservation
On November 26, 1981, the building of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust with Registration No. 3133 was recognized in the category II Historic Place.