The Commerce Building has been red stickered. That means nobody can go in or out for the foreseeable future.
All of my work is on the network drives. IT would need to get into the Commerce Building to reboot those servers, as best I understand things. But the building is red stickered. So I can barely work from out of the office. Not that that would be terribly easy with daycare closed.
But we're well, the kids are fine. Water is being restored to South Brighton and the power should be back within days.
I really really wish I'd spent ten minutes in my office after the quake carefully sorting out what stuff I could possibly need for the next month and hauling it all out with me. It's not like I got out of the building any more quickly for not having done that - the queue of students in the stairwell meant we spent rather a long time hanging out on the stairs. Time I should have spent in my office getting things. Stupid red sticker incentives.
The University is talking about hotdesking folks in other buildings. They'll have to get the daycare open first though.
I'm astounded. The Commerce Building was built in the 90s (and designed by Athfield no less). Surely it had decent earthquake protection?
ReplyDeletePeter: The seismic impact of the 22 February event has been estimated at 150% of building code compliance which means a buggered building is not too surprising.
ReplyDeleteEric. Surely the question is Were your actions optimal given the information you had at the time?
ReplyDeleteA bigger problem is the damage to the Staff Club! Where can we get such good beer if the club is closed?
ReplyDeletePaul, what other university buildings have been red-stickered?
ReplyDeletePete: I am asuming
ReplyDelete1. Commerce
2. University boilerhouse
3. Te Pourewa at the College of Education
4. Staff Club
If I had to guess, the red sticker would be because the cement panels along the stairs need reinforcing. There were cement chunks on the stairs after the quake. If that is all, it shouldn't take long to fix.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the Commerce building did the job it was built to do. As I understand it, the building code isn't so much about having a perfectly intact building after a major event as it is in ensuring that the building stays up and allows you to evacuate after said event. I suspect that a number of buildings in the CBD that performed well during the earthquake will still now need a bulldozer.
ReplyDeleteIt would be pretty surprising if there were serious structural problems with the Commerce building. It's less than 15 years old and way out in Ilam.
ReplyDeleteRe: beer requirements. I hear Pomeroys will reopen soon.
ReplyDelete