St Elmo Courts was a residential high rise building constructed in 1930 in the city centre

Christchurch Central City

Christchurch Central City is the geographical centre and the heart of Christchurch, New Zealand. It is defined as the area within the four avenues and thus includes the densely built up central city, some less dense surrounding areas of residential, educational and industrial usage, and green...

 of Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, New Zealand. Used mainly as an office building in later years, it had a Category II heritage listing by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust

New Zealand Historic Places Trust

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust is a non-profit trust that advocates for the protection of ancestral sites and heritage buildings in New Zealand...

. It was demolished in March 2011, having suffered significant damage in the 2010 Canterbury earthquake

2010 Canterbury earthquake

The 2010 Canterbury earthquake was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, which struck the South Island of New Zealand at 4:35 am on local time ....

 and more damage in the subsequent February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

History

The site of the building, on the corner of Worcester and Montreal Streets, was occupied by the St Elmo Boarding House. It was advertised as "superior private accommodation". A replacement building, St Elmo Courts, was designed in 1929 by B. J. Ager. This reflected a movement in the larger New Zealand cities in the 1920s and 1930s for apartment living. The appeals were inexpensive living in a central location, with apartments offering modern conveniences and built in furniture. St Elmo Courts was constructed in 1930. Accordingly, St Elmo Court provided bedsits and two-bedroom apartments. Many of those were later converted to office space.

After the 2010 Canterbury earthquake, the building was yellow stickered (meaning restricted access only). The building's owner and his insurance company agreed that it was too damaged after the 22 February 2011 earthquake for it to be saved. Demolition began on 20 March 2011.

Structural design and failure mechanism

St Elmo Court had a light reinforced concrete frame that was infilled with masonry. Following the 4 September 2010 earthquake, diagonal shear cracks were visible in the façade in the vertical piers. One column had a shear failure. The damage became more extensive in the 22 February 2011 earthquake.

Heritage listing

On 26 November 1981, the building was registered by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a Category II historic place, with the registration number being 3133.