StAC: Our Earthquake Story | The Boarding Houses Stories

Resources and Environment

Boarders Happy to be Back ‘Home’ It has been a long two years, but the boarding students have finally returned to their College home-away-from-home on the campus. They were welcomed in grand style by guest of honour Prime Minister John Key who officially opened the new $15.2m boarding complex in March.

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It was a special occasion, made even more memorable when Mr Key took the time to personally greet students as he made his way on foot along the main College driveway to the boarding houses. He talked, laughed and posed for photographs before he was piped through the quad to take his place on the podium.

The Prime Minister’s speech was spontaneous; he spoke of his desire to be the Prime Minister when he was 12 years old and shared a lesson passed on to him from his mother — that it was attitude that played a vital role in success in life, not just ability.

The occasion, heralded by the jazz band, marked the beginning of a new era in boarding for St Andrew’s.

As a result of the February 2011 earthquake, two of the College’s three boarding houses had to be demolished.

The Board seized the opportunity to bring forward plans to develop a new boarding complex that would house 120 of the 167 boarders, with the other 47 boarders accommodated in the original Rutherford boarding house, now MacGibbon. The new complex, designed by Wilkie and Bruce Architects, is built to 100% of the new building code, and incorporates the latest engineering technology. There was significant ground remediation work, comprising 660 stone columns, six metres deep, overlain by a deep gravel raft and concrete slab foundations that were needed to provide greater strength and stability to the building.

General Manager David Evans says safety was always a priority for the boarding complex. “Safety for our students and staff was paramount when considering this project, however protection of the asset was also important. The total team effort between our architects and our contractors has been amazing. They met some very challenging deadlines that allowed us to be open within 13 months of starting construction.”

Care was taken to ensure the materials used in the construction of the boarding houses were sympathetic to the existing environment. The houses were designed to allow boarders to enjoy a combination of private and communal living spaces with areas for quiet study and reflection and recreational areas to relax and socialise.

The buildings have a natural indoor/outdoor flow with striking landscaping, lawns and courtyards for casual gatherings. The interior is light and contemporary with practical bedroom design that is not only spacious but also has attractive furnishings, including built-in desks, pin boards and storage. Every floor has a day lounge, complete with TV and balcony where students can relax.

A media lounge on each ground floor offers a friendly space for smaller gatherings.

“It is outstanding to have our boarders back onsite and once again to share a vibrant and supportive community, which generates life-long friendships. Being onsite fosters the strong boarding spirit and culture that makes StAC boarding distinctive,” says Director of Boarding Dianne MacDonald.

Student Head of Boys’ Boarding Matthew Morrison agrees.

“With everyone onsite the boarding culture has flourished with interactions between seniors and juniors renewed and excitement running rife through the houses.”

While living in motels was exciting, Dianne says there is a sense of relief that things are back to normal.

“The buzz in the Strowan House dining room is fantastic – just like it used to be.”

Watch a video of the new boarding houses at stac.school.nz

Prime Minister, Rt Hon John Key greets students in the quad before

Head of Girls’ Boarding Lucy Power and Head of Boys’ Boarding Matthew

officially opening the new Thompson and Rutherford boarding houses.

Morrison with Prime Minister John Key, Director of Boarding Dianne MacDonald, Rector Christine Leighton and Chairman of the Board Garry Moore.

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From the Board

Garry Moore Chairman

The Board wishes to express its appreciation to all students and staff for their patience during what’s been a very disrupted few months. We congratulate them on not losing focus and keeping their hearts and minds committed to achieving excellence in their pursuits in spite of the daily challenges they face.

Rebuilding at the College from the damage wrought by the September and February earthquakes continues at a fast pace. The Arts Block is open again after being strengthened and work continues on repairing and restrengthening Strowan. The Board remains committed to restoring Strowan to retain its original character.

Strengthening of Rutherford House is underway and when finished will include a new Junior Boys’ common room. This is in its final design stage.

The Board continues to finalise insurance discussions and has given conditional approval for the first two wings of the new boarding houses to go ahead. Building is expected to be completed by September 2012 with students able to move in at the beginning of Term 4.

However, even though we’re moving quickly, safety is an ongoing priority. Rest assured that student and staff safety will never be compromised for expediency.

The fact the College has been able to operate as usual around the ongoing repair and building work is to be applauded. We acknowledge College management and our building partners Mainzeal and Bushnell Builders.

We are encouraged by the number of new enrolments for Term 3. These are ahead of our reforecast numbers and bodes well for our medium term plan for St Andrew’s. We believe the new boarding houses will quickly restore confidence in the College’s ability to cater for boarders.

It’s also heart warming to realise that our experiences here in Christchurch are being shared around the world.

I recently had the opportunity while in London to meet Old Collegians, Emeritus Professor Michael Spiro (1943–1946), a senior research fellow at the Imperial College of London and the benefactor of the Spiro Science and Mathematics Centre, Dr Ivor Francis (1951–1955), Emeritus Professor at the University of Cambridge now retired and living in Sydney and whose family donated the Chapel windows, and property developer Alec Matheson (1952–1955).

I was moved by their genuine concern for what was happening at the College. They were interested to hear about our experiences during the earthquake and our plans for the future.

Old Collegians remain passionate, enthusiastically interested and supportive of the College even though they live in far-flung corners of the globe.

This support will ensure the College collectively emerges stronger than ever from the challenges ahead.

Kind regards

Garry Moore Chairman

There are still decisions to be made around the pipe band room and the Chapel. Continued thinking around the integration of the pipe band room may lead to a decision to rebuild a stand-alone facility.

It is too early yet to give any indication of the work required to restore the Chapel. We await a City Council determination on the status of the land. This will be followed by an assessment of the required ground remediation and detailed analysis of structural and foundation options.

The Board is very mindful of how important and significant the building is to the St Andrew’s community and will accord the decision the respect the Chapel deserves. We will be looking to do whatever is possible to restore the building on the current site.

Chairman of the Board Garry Moore (back right) with Professor Michael Spiro (front), Dr Ivor Francis (left) and Alec Matheson (back) in London.

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A Vision for the Future Building Update After a year of serious disruption and considerable campus damage in 2011, St Andrew’s College is once again fully functional and campus developments are “full steam ahead”.

Strowan House, The Memorial Chapel, The Askin Band Room, Thompson, MacGibbon and Rutherford Boarding Houses, the Preparatory School administration building and the pool were all significantly damaged, with the Band Room, Thompson and MacGibbon Boarding Houses and the Prep administration building all being demolished during the course of the last year.

The bedrooms will be modern and functional, with attractive day lounges at the end of each floor.

Both houses will enjoy a large, multipurpose communal area and landscaped gardens will complement this homely environment.

Take a video tour of the new boarding houses at stac.school.nz

Rutherford Boarding House had $2.2 million spent on strengthening to enable the MacGibbon boys to return to campus from the start of 2012 and there was also significant strengthening work on the Arts Block, to the effect of $1.65 million.

Restoration work on Strowan House began over the Christmas break. Detailed description of the work on Strowan can be found on Pg 25. The College continues to operate from temporary administration centres and with secondary staff based around the College and using the Sports Pavilion until work on Strowan is completed.

The Band Room With the demolition of The Askin Band Room, the Pipe Band functions from two portacoms for tutoring purposes. When the band needs to gather together, they do so using either the music room or the senior common room. The College Board and the Pipe Band Management Committee continue to seek a satisfactory solution to meeting the immediate and future needs of the Pipe Band.

Boarding While 42 MacGibbon boys (Years 9 and 10 and some Year 11 students) are now back on site, 100 boarders remain in motel accommodation along Papanui Road.

This has proven a satisfactory solution, thanks to the adaptability of both staff and students, but there is no doubt that all are looking forward to a return to campus at the beginning of 2013. There is great anticipation and excitement around the new boarding houses being built to accommodate 120 boarders. These, along with the existing Rutherford House, will enable the College to build boarding back to a full complement of 160 students.

The new boarding houses, designed by Wilkie and Bruce Architects are built to 100% of the new building code, with the latest engineering technology. Significant ground remediation work, comprising of 660 stone columns, six metres deep, overlain by a deep gravel raft and concrete slab foundation has taken place.

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K-brace framing on the outside of Rutherford House.

Looking Forward to the Future Out of adversity comes opportunity. The recent demolition of two of the three boarding houses at St Andrew’s College has seen the College embark on building a brand new state-of-the-art boarding complex, which will see the return of 150 boarders to the College campus in 2012. This is an exciting, if unexpected, opportunity for the College.

Strengthening of the one remaining boarding house will see junior students return to campus from the start of next year. The two new boarding wings will separately house boys and girls and will complement the remaining boarding house.

“The building will be designed to a high quality with robust materials and finishes, and all the modern features expected of a contemporary boarding facility. The structural design will be developed to a standard 30% greater than required by the new postearthquake seismic design codes and will be piled to mitigate the risk of liquefaction damage,” says Tony Hoare, Director of Wilkie and Bruce Registered Architects Limited.

Dianne MacDonald Director of Boarding, says, “It is testimony to the strong boarding spirit, family

atmosphere, and proactive care that boarding students have remained connected to the College and continue to enjoy the boarding spirit while they are accommodated offsite.” Students still have meals onsite and supervised prep in the evenings.

Head boarding students Megan Sutherland and Sam Clark agree that living offsite has been a new experience for the boarders but that the boarding community is still very much together. “We still enjoy our boarding events such as House Singing, Fluro Dinner and Boarders’ Quiz Night, which are all great opportunities to have fun and build the boarding community,” says Sam. Megan agrees, “We love being back together and we are excited to see what path boarding will take in the future.”

Boarding students, staff and parents have had the opportunity to give feedback around the new boarding houses. “It’s very important to us to include our parents and students and boarding staff in our initial discussions as they are a key part of what makes boarding at St Andrew’s College so very special,” says Rector Christine Leighton. “So far everyone has been impressed with the plans and we look forward to a strong future for boarding.”

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Thompson House and the boarding houses’ administration block are now complete.

Campus Update Insurance Settlement There was a sense of relief this term when Chairman of the Board Garry Moore announced agreement had been reached with insurers ACS (formally Ansvar) in settlement of the College’s claim for earthquake damages. “After a lengthy period of negotiation, we reached a resolution we considered fair and satisfactory,” says Garry. “The entire insurance settlement will be invested in the repair, rebuild and strengthening of buildings around the College campus, including the Boarding Houses, Strowan House, Arts Block and the Senior College, on which the College has already spent in excess of $32 million. It will also allow us to repay some of the debt incurred while awaiting the claim to be settled.”

Garry thanked the St Andrew’s College Foundation for providing a $4 million interest-free loan that enabled building repairs and the Boarding House rebuild to begin.

“The settlement has given us confidence that we can continue with our re-aligned campus master plan and that we can achieve it within the bounds of the normal operating budget,” says Garry. “We believe we will now have greater flexibility around future master planning and the reinstatement of demolished buildings.”

The settlement however does not cover major building redesign and improvements, such as the new Chapel.

“While we received the insured replacement value for the Memorial Chapel, the new Chapel will be reliant upon significant fundraising. This is already underway, and we will hopefully see the new Chapel completed in time for the College Centennial in 2017.” The fundraising campaign will also focus on growing the Foundation and Stage 2 of the new Culture and Sports Centre. The College is able to fund Stage 1 of this complex – a second gymnasium – and is planning to begin construction in 2014.

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Chairman of the Board Garry Moore accepts a cheque for the insurance settlement of the Memorial Chapel from John Kenny, ACS (NZ) Ltd.

Boarding Houses While the unexpected collapse of Mainzeal Construction caused a slight delay in the building of the new Thompson and Rutherford Boarding Houses, General Manager David Evans says all construction work is now complete. “There was still a significant amount of site work to do at the time of the collapse but that is finished and everything looks fantastic.” The finished complex now includes eight garages, one of which is fitted out with racks to be a bike storage area, a netball court, car parking and an administration block. The girls’ common room in Thompson House is also finished.

The netball court, which is floodlit, still needs its special SYNPAVE surface however that will be applied during summer. Extensive native plantings by landscape architects, Jasmax, have enhanced the outside of the building and an anonymous donor has added a quirky Sharon Earl sculpture to the gardens in the form of a cow called Flora, which David says everyone is admiring. There is still some landscape tidying up to do along the Heaton River boundary but that is almost complete.