Inside the Red Zone

A strict cordon is tightly drawn around the shattered heart of Christchurch’s central business district.

Landmarks that have been familiar for decades have gone.

The aerial view, one of several taken from a helicopter tour over the city by Adrian Bayliss, shows Cathedral Square on the left and looks north.

About 1000 demolition workers have already removed 500 buildings, including that of The Press, just to the right of the Cathedral in the aerial view.

The empty Press site on the corner of Worcester St and the Square will be replaced by this futuristic low-rise complex that may be the first building to rise in the rebuild of the CBD.

The sculptural design concept has been created by London firm fourfoursixsix, and will include shops, hospitality outlets, offices and a top floor with an entrtertaining area.

Undecided fates
Our exclusive street-view journey begins starts at the checkpoint, looking east down a deserted Armagh St.

The fate of the two high-rises, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Forsyth Barr, like many others, is undecided.

Owners will make the decisions whether they can be restored and re-tenanted.

Nearby is the Copthorne hotel on Colombo St and overlooking Victoria Square.

Moving into Cathedral Square, Neil Dawson's distinctive Chalice sculpture is still standing.

Behind it is the BNZ building, another building with an unknown fate. BNZ operations have been moved to Russley near the airport.

In Hereford St, the new Wendy’s outlet never opened for business. (Correction (see comment below): It had been open only a few months.)

Around the corner in Oxford Tce, overlooking the Avon River, the prized late afternoon-to-past-midnight place to be, The Strip, remains the way it was at lunchtime on February 22, with bottles and plates on tables.

The once bustling City Mall in Cashel St is being readied for a re-opening on October 29 with more than 60 shipping containers being placed on cleared sites to house 27 temporary shops.

They will be grouped around the department store Ballantynes, which is being rebuilt inside, as the symbolic centre of the Restart the Heart initiative to bring retailing back to the city in time for Cup and Show Week.

The red containers can be seen at the centre of this aerial view.

The new City Mall will only go as far as Colombo St while at the western end the war memorial arch bridge will remain closed.

Access will be to the south from cleared site between Lichfield and Tuam Sts, where a bus transfer station will be established.

Demolition sites
The busiest demolition site is near the leaning Hotel Grand Chancellor, which like its Westpac neighbour across the road is among the modern high-rises slated for removal.

The aerial shot shows how the Grand Chancellor is tightly surrounded by other buildings that also have to be demolished. The Westpac building is centre bottom. In the car-parking building by the crane, an SUV is stuck under a fallen roof and cannot be removed.

Looking toward the Port Hills, down High St to the left and Manchester St on the right, the Excelsior Hotel will be restored. The containers are to protect the historic façade from any demolition damage.

The SoL (south of Lichfield) entertainment precinct looks in surprisingly good nick and ready for business when the Red Zone is removed. This photo is taken from a scaffold alongside the the Ministry nightclub building, which is having its roof repaired in readiness to reopen.

The front view, with owner Bruce Williamson, shows the extent of the damage on the upper floors, after the neighbouring building collapsed on it.

The nightclub's interior has only superficial damage. Scenes from the new film The Holy Roller were made near here and provide a restrospective view of what it was like before the earthquakes

Our trip continued back up Manchester St toward the Avon. The aerial shot includes the area hardest hit by the first earthquake in September 2010. Sites on both sides are largely cleared.

Near the three-hour journey’s end, the heavy toll on buildings close to the Avon River can be seen from Cambridge Tce looking over to Oxford Tce near Colombo St.

A couple of blocks away, the picturesque Little Regent St and its tramway, seen from Armagh St, appear unscathed, at least on the outside.

Pictures: Nevil Gibson and Adrian Bayliss