2 June 2017 – UPDATE 3
Wellington City Council’s (WCC) Recovery/Resilience Team
Wellington Region Emergency Management Office (WREMO)
Work in Thorndon continues to happen, albeit behind the scenes right now.
- Council has met with the teams of Defence House and Revera House this week as well as connected with the Thorndon School on their rebuild project.
- The Revera House team has not yet lodged a building consent and are still working on a number of matters.
- The Defence House building consent is in the Council machine now. We’re working with them to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum while ensuring the building can come down safely.
We appreciate that currently these updates are lacking in detail. This is the case as the relevant parties take the time required to work through their due diligence. When we know more we will be able to share it with you.
19 May 2017 – UPDATE 2
Wellington City Council’s (WCC) Recovery/Resilience Team
Wellington Region Emergency Management Office (WREMO)
As you’ll be aware there are a number of projects occurring within the Thorndon community.
The big ones in the immediate area are:
- Indian high commission – development
- Revera House – deconstruction
- Defence House building – deconstruction
- St Pauls apartment – upgrade programme
- British High Commission – construction project
- Queen Margaret College – 3-storey construction project
Council is working with people at each of these sites to make sure decisions aren’t made in isolation and the impacts to the community are considered and minimised.
Regarding the two pending de-constructions. Council has not received the completed paper work for building consent on either of these properties yet and as such, we can’t talk about their confirmed methodology. What we can say is that the building owners have been working with us to design a process that causes the least amount of disruption while allowing them to get the job done.
The immediate neighbours in the area, Cook Islands High Commission, Old Saint Paul’s, Wellington Girls College, the owners and tenants of Pipitea House, and the Thorndon Residents Association among others, have all been engaged in this process and actively shared their concerns and considerations. This has helped create a picture of the needs and concerns of the most impacted people as well as the wider community.
26 April 2017 – UPDATE 1
Wellington City Council’s (WCC) Recovery/Resilience Team
Wellington Region Emergency Management Office (WREMO)
Deconstruction work has been delayed on Revera House for the following reasons
Approvals are still needed from the owners of the GCSB building, Old St Paul’s and the Cook Islands High Commission building for the necessary encroachment on to their property to deconstruct Revera House.
Class B asbestos has been found in two test results returned to the owners. This type of asbestos is included within other material in the building. This has been notified to the Wellington City Council (WCC) as well as Work Safe and will need to be noted in the Building Consent submitted to the Council by the building owners before any approval is given to decommission the building.
From the date of the meeting it was estimated that work would not start for another 6 – 8 weeks (late June or early July).
Thorndon Community Meeting – 31 March 2017
Earthquake Recovery/Resilience
Meeting Two: Revera House decommissioning
Click the image to the left to view the complete meeting notes.
Agenda summary
Both hosts are part of the Wellington City Council’s (WCC) Recovery/Resilience Team (RE: 14 November 2016 earthquake). This meeting was specifically concerning buildings in Thorndon.
The subject of this meeting was the decommissioning of Revera House.
It should not be under estimated the impact decommissioning, demolition and building will have on Thorndon/Pipitea as a result of the 14 November 2016 earthquake.
The Thorndon Residents Association is concerned about the well being of the suburb/community.
Thorndon Community Meeting – 23 March 2017
Earthquake Recovery/Resilience
Revera House
Revera House (pictured right) is on the northern boundary of historic Old St Pauls, near the intersection of Murphy St, Mulgrave St and Pipitea St.
Click the image to the left to view the complete meeting notes.
Agenda summary
1. Overview of Thorndon – post Kaikoura quake
2. What has caused the considerable and focused damage in Thorndon?
3. 48 Murphy St (Revera House)
Freyberg House
Click the image to the left to open a media statement on the demolition of Freyberg House (headquarters of the Ministry of Defence).
Central Community Liaisons Forum Meeting – 7 March 2017
Click the image to the left to view the complete meeting notes.
Agenda summary
1. Introductions/ purpose of the forum
2. Sum up from October, Community Resilience Theme
3. Theme: Neighbour’s Day
4. Activity – Group Planning
5. What’s on top – Community events, programmes
We need volunteer hosts and venues for these meetings. We plan 4-5 forums per year (for 2017 March, May, June/July, September, November). If you can assist in offering a venue and help organising some possible dates, please get in touch with
