Architects are celebrating after Anglican bishop Peter Carrell confirmed the church will use the cardboard cathedral "for the foreseeable future".

"You can make the argument that the cardboard cathedral is one of the ... most significant buildings in New Zealand's architectural history," architect Andrew Barrie said.

"It's the only building we have in New Zealand by a Pritzker prize winner. It's internationally significant," he said. Read more

Less than a week ago, the team behind the Cathedral restoration told the Christchurch City Council to hold on to the remainder of its $10m commitment to the project.

Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Ltd (CCRL) failed to raise the $30m required to move on to the next stage of the project by its self-imposed deadline, and will meet with city councillors behind closed doors on Tuesday, August 20, to discuss next steps. Read more

Christ Church Cathedral was a symbol of Christchurch. "What will the new symbol be?" asks Professor Michael Grimshaw, a Canterbury University sociologist.

Grimshaw says that since the 2011 earthquakes destroyed much of the central city, its heart has moved from Cathedral Square towards Cashel St and the Avon River.

In Grimshaw's opinion, the Square is dead.

"It's basically a giant big traffic island" he says.

Grimshaw believes the city's narrative should be rewritten, putting its Anglican past behind it, giving it a fresh start and creating a 21st-century modern city.

Other diverging perspectives

The future of Cathedral Square in Christchurch is now impossible to predict as the project to restore Christ Church Cathedral is likely to be mothballed.

Several opinions about the Square's future have emerged.

Some see the half-collapsed cathedral as a pile of rubble that should be removed.

Others don't want the cathedral remains dumped.

Philip Burdon, a former Cabinet minister who co-led the campaign to save the cathedral, said mothballing was the best option in the circumstances.

"The reality is, it is going to be an unhappy economy for a couple of years. After mothballing for a couple of years, we should be in a more positive environment for public and private funding.

"I certainly do not regard demolition as a good option" he says.

However, a food truck owner has a different perspective.

"I think we should take it down and just start new again. It would be safer and more beautiful, and stronger" the food truck owner told The Press.

"It's not very good in this area, especially at night. Even the tourists come, and they can't see anything here - so they go to another place."

When he heard the "incredibly sad and disappointing" news, Mark Stewart, who chairs Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Limited, said the board would meet this coming Monday to discuss its implications.

"With the Government's decision, the pathway to completion is much longer and mothballing is now likely" he said.

Source

• The Press

The Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Trust says its budget estimate had ballooned from $104 million to $248m, following a four-month project review.

There is now a $114m funding gap. Ratepayers and taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill.

The Trust says this is not the news it wanted to announce.

Trust chair Mark Stewart says there is "no sugarcoating" the situation.

"Ultimately we are going to run out of money unless we solicit some support. What we need is a lifeline."

We've been doing our best to stretch the dollars, the Trust says. This included beginning to reduce staff numbers and slowing on-site work to help keep costs down.

"We realised that costs were starting to get quite expensive. There were changes ... in ... our estimations ... and the bills that were flowing through from that [in 2023]" Stewart says.

Costs keep mounting up

Back in 2017, the Anglican Synod voted by a narrow margin to reinstate the building. At that time, the cost was estimated at $104m.

The Trust was set up to fundraise the money needed.

The Government of the day pledged a $15m taxpayer contribution, plus a $10m loan towards the cathedral project.

Christchurch City Council also committed $10m in ratepayer funds.

By 2020 however, the project costs had increased by $50m. That's about 48 per cent higher than the sum originally estimated.

As the Trust discovered in December, these costs just keep ballooning. More cash is needed to pay the bills and keep the project running. It's not an easy fix.

Stewart says if $30m isn't secured by August this year, the project will be indefinitely mothballed.

A "mothballed scenario" would see the project "hidden from view, and people will not be able to visit it or preserve it, because it will remain a construction site in suspension".

Source

• RNZ
• The Press
• NZ Herald

Christ Church Cathedral restoration project director Keith Paterson said the people's steeple plan was rejected because it would be too costly and the timber would take up too much space in the spire.

American carpenter Marcus Brandt wanted to rebuild the spire, which collapsed in the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, in timber and then hoist it into place using ropes, pullies and 500 volunteers. Read more