Putting the Arts Centre back together stone by stone

More than 11 years on from the Christchurch earthquakes, stone mason Darren Harris is able to stand back and admire the part he played in putting one of the city's landmark buildings back together.

For Harris, each step along the way in the reconstruction of The Arts Centre in the central city brought a sense of satisfaction.

The recently restored Observatory building is an example of the work he and other skilled craftsmen were involved in.

The simplicity of the finished structure disguises the many hours of work involved, he says.

Harris shared some of the challenges facing the stone masons and discussed the details of his craft. 

"Who remembers the observatory, before the earthquakes? You all do. Well, I never saw it before the earthquakes, so all I saw was the carnage," he said. 

"So my job is to basically rebuild and refit some of the new stone that needed to be refitted."

Due to the extent of the damage, the tower block had to be deconstructed before it could be rebuilt, using a mix of new and original blocks of basalt and Oamaru stone.  

The stone masons catalogued the old stones for future use and took advantage of historic black-and-white photographs as references during the rebuild. 

"The biggest challenge would be trying to make it look like it hasn’t been changed but obviously it will look fresh and new cause it's new stone," Harris said. 

However, the effects of weathering have already softened the appearance of the observatory’s pristine refurbishment, giving it a similar look to before the quakes.    

 - By John Spurdle
- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air