A Dunedin archivist is to present a petition to the Dunedin City Council to ask it to do all it can to ensure the retention and preservation of the partially collapsed Barron's Building in Rattray St.
Dr David Murray, who nominated the former commercial building for registration with the Historic Places Trust in 2009, said he started the petition on Saturday because he felt he needed to be proactive, while the fate of the building was still undecided.
Built in 1875, it partially collapsed on January 12.
By 5pm yesterday, 126 people had signed the online petition and Dr Murray said he was working on a paper version, which he intended to distribute around the city.
He was doing it because the building was of historic, and architectural significance, as well as culturally significant and, with the Dragon Cafe in its ground floor, an important contributor to the vitality of the area.
He said he understood the building would be expensive to preserve, and the owner was the key person in that, but if they got the right support from the council it could help the owner a lot.
"The benefits are there - economic, touristic, and sustainable.
It is a lot greener option to restore it than to have an entire new build.
"Obviously, our petition isn't going to force anybody to do anything, but it will raise awareness with people of how significant this building is, on many levels."
Work on the building continued yesterday, with the aim to finish stabilising work on the facade, so the roadway can be reopened to two-way traffic.
Engineers said the plan for the building remained the same - once the facade was stable, the remaining parts of the building would be stabilised and the building would then be made water tight as much as possible.
It would be assessed at the completion of that work, and if it was safe, people would be allowed inside, but only on essential business.
The building could then be assessed further and all the affected parties would be consulted to formulate a long-term plan for its future.
There was no timeframe on how long it would take to get to that stage.
The co-owner of the building, Lincoln Darling, declined to comment on the petition yesterday.
