And for that is the city poorer?
Well for one Invercargill man, the knocking down of a small building on the corner of Wood and Nith Sts in the city centre was a waste.
The building had been sitting there for years and years — noone seemed to know its exact age but its demise only took a couple of days last week.
A PowerNet spokesperson said on behalf of Electricity Invercargill, it had demolished the small brick building last week.
The building was an old substation, which housed a transformer and switchgear, which has since been relocated to a site alongside.
The building was no longer required for electrical equipment and had some seismic issues.
All the necessary due diligence was completed and required approvals, if any, obtained prior to the demolition.
An Invercargill resident, who declined to give his name, said he had always admired the building and it was a waste it had gone.
He said little effort seemed to be made to keep the building. He could understand why it had to be knocked down but said it was still a shame.
"We have here in New Zealand a rather immature attitude to heritage buildings. There is not much appetite to save these beautiful buildings," he said.
"We do not cherish and respect the past like we should."
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga catalogued old buildings and gave some of them protection, but too many were still lost, he said.
"Everyone travels to Europe to see all the old buildings over there. If they had the same attitude we had there would be none of them left.
"The buildings should be identified in advance. But it has gone now and people will miss it."
