Our Building's Story - Aldersgate Centre

Find out how the new Aldersgate Centre rose from the ground up

The first earthquake in September 2010 caused substantial damage to the old Durham Street Church and Aldersgate Centre, and props were placed to support the church. However, weakened further by the multitude of aftershocks, it was utterly destroyed by the February 2011 quake, and tragically took three lives with it.

Work on the construction of our exciting new building began in 2018, the first service in the new Aldersgate Centre took place on Christmas Day 2019, and the official opening was in February 2020.

The Durham Street Methodist Church is now able to offer warm and welcoming hospitality in the heart of the city – a gathering place open to all, with a wide variety of community and function spaces.

The new Aldersgate Centre has been thoughtfully designed with maximum flexibility to meet the diversity of changing community needs. It includes quiet places for meditation or a sanctuary from noisy and busy lives. It includes some of the latest technology and venue spaces for exciting events and for people to meet and work together on what is important to them. Through clever design there is space both for large gatherings and intimate meetings. A tranquil memorial garden has been created on the site where three people lost their lives in the February 2011 earthquake, while removing the pipe organ from the old church for storage.

The seismic resilience of the new building meets Importance Level 3 (the seismic performance required, for example, for conference centres, stadiums and airport terminals) and it rests on seismically strengthened ground.

Progress updates from the build can be found below.

After the earthquakes

During demolition the old stone church did not appear to have any foundations, However, once sitework for the new building commenced, it was quite a surprise to discover approximately 2 metres of dry stone wall in the ground around the perimeter. Not a lot of structural support, but in 1864 it would have been a standard type of construction for builders used to the seismically-inactive United Kingdom.

February 2018

After years as a car park, the site is finally ready to begin a new stage in its history. The vision is planted squarely on the land. And after a dawn blessing, the machinery is brought in and the project begins. As in most big construction projects the first task is to dig down. Only this time it is drilling a hundred holes to fill and stabilise the shaken ground, and recreate our own bedrock.

June 2018

The fence is covered in – a sign that things must really be happening now. And at last things start to look like they are building up from the ground level.

July 2018

We can begin to see an outline of the shape of the building drawn across the site in concrete blocks and reinforcing rods. The seal is intrigued by what is appearing before its eyes.

August 2018

The walls begin to rise. The outline of the spectacular curved chapel walls appear for the first time

October 2018

The seal is feeling a little cozier, but still has plenty of room to breathe.

December 2018

Aerial view from a drone of the rear of the Centre, shows just how big and versatile the facilities will be. And views from street level on Durham Street, as the wooden framing goes up between the steel

April 2019

Progress on the construction continues – now inside as well as outside, as the roofing is being constructed. On the scaffolding on Durham Street, you can also see a sign that displays our values and philosophy about how this new facility will be used in the city to support social justice and inclusion, as well as provide a base for a practical, contemporary and open spirituality.

Roof Shout at Aldersgate

It is a tradition that when a significant building reaches the stage of its roof being completed, that the client organises a ‘roof shout’ for all those working on the construction. We celebrated ours for the Aldersgate Centre on 10 May 2019. It involved providing a burger lunch for the workers and support staff (around 70 people), and also gave many of us the opportunity to have a look around the building the first time. It all adds to the anticipation as we head towards the opening, scheduled for Christmas 2019.

July 2019

With much of the external scaffolding now taken down, its easier to get a good idea of the overall shape of the new centre and especially its external finishes – which includes stone reclaimed from the original building though still hidden behind the protective fencing.

Stunning, new inclusive image to light Aldersgate

Work is underway on an exciting new and colourful window that will evoke a hopeful and inclusive message from The Chapel at Aldersgate to the busy Durham Street frontage. Symbols and images in the window’s design have been deliberately chosen to speak to people from a variety of faith backgrounds and none, filling three giant vertical panels, almost the height of the Aldersgate building. It is expected the window will be ready for Aldersgate’s Opening Celebration in February 2020.

We could only possibly afford such a large window of stained glass, because of the very generous support for the project by its designer and creator, Graham Stewart of Stewart Stained Glass, who sees the window as an important artistic, legacy project for the city.

On the right is the concept design – check back later to see how this is interpreted in stained glass.

Aldersgate breakfast thankyou

With the Aldersgate construction nearing completion, on a beautiful sunny summer morning at 7:30am on Thursday 28 Nov, Durham Street Methodists provided a sit-down, full-English cooked ‘thank you’ in the form of a breakfast for 65 workers (architects, designers, managers, builders, tradies and many others) who had contributed in one way or another to the remarkable construction of the new Aldersgate Centre. With more than a dozen church volunteers in the kitchen and at the servery under David’s capable leadership (getting things prepared since 5:30am that morning), and many hungry mouths to be fed in a short time, it also provided a challenging test-run for the new kitchen. Just enough cups, plates and cutlery were quickly unpacked the night before and the first load of chairs and tables especially picked up to ensure everyone had enough places to sit and eat, in the Lounge area, over-looking the garden courtyard. The first service will be held in the Chapel @ Aldersgate at 9:30am on Christmas Day 2019, and a special Opening Celebration is planned for the weekend of 28 Feb-01 March, 2020

Poutama screens

The large screens that hang down from the roof over the colonnades down both sides of the Aldersgate Great Hall are made of punched metal, but have been designed to echo the traditional, woven tukutuku panels that often line marae (meeting house) walls.

In particular, the stepped Poutama design used in the Aldersgate panels is sometimes referred to as the ‘stairway to heaven’ pattern, and has significant spiritual and social meanings. It traditionally symbolises genealogies and also the various levels of learning and achievement – the growth of humanity, striving ever-upward for the best we can be. It comes from the mythical origins of Māori society, symbolising the spiritual power of Tāne Mahuta or Tāwhaki (the god of humanity and the forest domain), and his climb to the top-most heavens to bring back sacred knowledge for Māori and humanity, with challenges at each level before he succeeded.

Christmas Day 2019

The very first service took place in the chapel, 155 years to the day after the opening of the old church in 1864.

Opening Ceremony

The two-day opening ceremony held over the weekend of 28-29 February 2020 was a fantastic event. There were many speakers, including the Mayor of Christchurch, Liane Dalziel, local MP Duncan Webb, the President of the Methodist Conference, Rev Setaita Taumoepeau K. Veikune and representatives of other faiths.

Representatives from local Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist groups each gifted a banner to be displayed in the church and you can read about the banners here.

In the Huritau Garden, a plaque commemorating the three men who died during the February earthquake was dedicated. Paul Dunlop, Scott Lucy and Neil Stocker had been in the process of removing the organ for storage when old stone church collapsed.

Music was a big feature of the weekend, with musical items as part of the ceremony on Saturday and the service on Sunday, and a concert on Sunday afternoon.

Unfortunately the stained-glass window was not completed in time for installation to take place during the weekend but will be installed later in the year.

Stained-Glass Window

The colourful, inclusive stained-glass window was designed and crafted for us by Graham Stewart of Stewart Stained Glass. Graham sees it as an important artistic legacy project for the city. The window’s brilliant colours echo a vibrant and inclusive faith. The design is based on powerful and affirming images that are important to members of Durham Street Church, but also, we hope, speak to many beyond of different faiths and no specific faith: the encircling rainbow, the central dove, and the river of life that flows into the tree of life. Read more of the story this window has to tell and the significance of these symbols for a number of faiths.

The construction of the window took several months, with the final panels being worked on during the 2020 Covid lockdowns, which gave time for an amazing amount of detail. The stunning window was installed in June 2020.

The clear panel at the bottom of the window enables the church to remain connected with the city outside and for those outside to see that activities are going on inside.