138 Victoria Street, Christchurch

138 Victoria Street is a new four storey building with retail space on the ground floor and office space above, plus a basement car park, situated in central Christchurch. Each level has an approximate floor area of 690m², with a full height atrium running though the stairwell.

The building structure has an in-situ concrete frame with a structural steel element on the third level to the roof. The perimeter wall cladding consists of self-supported precast reinforced concrete wall panels which extend to the full building height of 17 metres, with a curtain wall glass façade on three sides from ground level to the roof. The northern wall is of precast panel construction, which provides fire protection from the neighbouring building.

The basement has 23 secure car parks as well as state-of-the-art base isolators (lead rubber bearings) and is piled to 26 metres, designed to allow up to 400mm of movement in an earthquake. There is a seismic channel along all four sides of the building to allow for movement, to minimise damage during an earthquake, and to ensure that the structural core of the building is left intact.

As the basement was built to the boundary on all sides, much thought was given to maintaining the working relationship with the neighbours, and also the flow of materials onto the site. The finished building integrates well with Victoria Street’s reinvigorated post-earthquake landscape.

We were delighted to return to 138 Victoria Street in 2016 to fit out to top two floors for leading international architectural practice GHD. The 1,100m² high quality fit out was completed to a demanding programme, with the first floor handed over in 40 days and the project complete in 50 days.