After a tour of the South Island’s mountains, I'm back in Christchurch for a day, and I’d planned to use it to follow-up my first letter to you. It's a rainy day here, a good time to spend some time indoors; not many people are walking the streets, and if they are, they are shopping.

I’ve learned that the earthquake in Christchurch, which was felt in a large segment of South Island, profoundly changed NZ building codes in ways that designers and builders all over the country are still grappling with. NZ is at the edge of a global geologic plate, with east part of North Island going over Australia's plate, and South Island going under. It is hard to imagine the scale of the forces at work where the over/under comes together.

There has long been concern about this "Alpine" fault, that forces were building for a major shift. In addition, the heat of the magma in the volcanic areas can generate movement or explosions as well. Neither of those caused the 2010/11 quakes. They revealed a NEW fault, the Greenfield fault, running beneath the alluvial (read: mush) soils of Christchurch's seaside plain. Not only a new fault, but a new kinds of earthquake that shook in a way that hadn’t happened before - more resonance, more harmonics, requiring new calculations and software. That’s as far as my understanding goes, but the resulting codes are apparently a bit complex. You likely know more.

Regardless, let’s talk about the work that has been accomplished.

A new shopping district in the middle of the CBD has been one of the key achievements since the earthquake. Downtown shopping has been restored with offices above on roughly three city blocks. The street where the trolley runs has been pedestrianized, and the new developments sometimes include networks of laneways, both here and a bit more afield from the absolute center of town. Laneways are mid-block pedestrianways within large developments, often including a courtyard, that free up more retail frontage, opportunities for both covered and uncovered outdoor seating, and quieter space than frontage on streets with traffic, all of which is well-suited for bars, restaurants and strolling.

It appears to me that major local businesses and local offices of the multi-nationals stepped up to build new offices quickly. None of the buildings are big, and several are two-story, which seems exceptionally low development in a CBD area. I'm not clear how the new earthquake codes may have influenced this, and also whether the two-story facilities are a first phase of development with future, larger-scale building anticipated.

The new Riverside Market is "THE" CBD destination. Several people recommended it before I arrived, and I have to say, it lives up to its reputation. Focused mainly on prepared foods, restaurants and small bars rather than produce and meats (though those are available too), it has ample indoor and outdoor - riverside! - seating. This is a real center of socializing for the CBD - at lunch, on weekends, for tourists, you name it. It is well-situated near shopping and tourist sites.

There's also a new roofed outdoor stadium under construction at the edge of the CBD. Did the earthquake provide the land clearance for that, one wonders?

Reconstruction of the historic buildings deemed "able to be saved" (combining a level of remaining structural integrity with the liklihood of resources becoming available to complete the work) are underway: the Cathedral, the Gothic Revival Canterbury Provincial Council chambers, University of Canterbury's neo-gothic buildings. Others weren't so lucky, like St. Luke's in the City Cathedral, whose building was demolished and congregation folded in 2019. The site is now owned by a residential developer, so we can expect something to happen there sooner than later.

New civic buildings went up quickly - a new transportation center, school and public library.

New and replacement housing is the predominant new development use, anything from single family homes on a "block" (lot as we say) to multifamily (townhouses, flats, or a combination).

Below, a selection of new housing types.

Following the 2011 second major quake, a year of aftershocks as big as over 5 on the Richter scale - is that what you experienced? I’m sure it was too soon to rebuild much. Then, a year of planning how to rebuild. There was also significant infrastructure work required that is somewhat invisible, but required in early days. Time would be needed for design, especially in light of new structural requirements. More recently, the intervening pandemic must have slowed the speed of new construction here too, with lingering supply issues. Given that, I would say there's really only been five to six good years to build since then. Then, in the background, there is the problem of raising capital - I try to keep in mind the scale of NZ and Christchurch. NZ has 3M tax payers while the US has about 170M; or, revenues of $108B versus $4T. Christchurch is a city of about 380,000, a little more than half the population of Boston or roughly 1/3 more than Cape Cod. The amount of relief from available from governments would be limited - a quick search yielded an amount from the Crown (the NZ government) of $300M, of which $220M is applied to the new stadium. Given all of those considerations, it's important to recognize the great amount already accomplished, as well as the current building momentum underway, and that the progress should happen much more quickly from here. It would be great to come back in five years and compare to today.