Vandals disturb renovations

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 8

Vandals disturb renovations

A Christchurch construction company wants vandals to stay away from the old Christchurch gas works administration building in Moorhouse Avenue.

The building has been broken into several times in the last few months by vandals who have smashed the windows and parts of the interior. Mr Chris Duder, of Duder Construction, Ltd, said yesterday that he believed the building was being vandalised because people thought it was to be demolished.

The exterior will, in fact, be retained and the interior is being remodelled for a Christchurch car sales dealer, Mr Graeme Kendall. Mr Duder said that the outside of the building had been painted before Christmas and glass valued at $l5OO put in upstairs windows. Within a week, all the glass had been smashed.

The building is now surrounded by stones which gave people plenty of “ammunition.” “I don’t know whether it is kids walking past taking pot shots or not,” Mr Duder said. The administstion building was built in 1942

uy vuarics L.uney, Liu. AS it was soon after the Napier earthquake, the concrete and brick interior was very solid and hard to knock out, Mr Duder said. Work started on the building at the beginning of the month and . Mr Duder said he expected it to be finished by the end

» of March. 3 It will have a showroom ' at the front, offices up--1 stairs, and probably a r workshop of some sort at the back, he said. All the fancy archways at the front of the build- ■ ing will be retained and a full-length canopy, similar to th'tfce above the upstairs windows, would be

put above the showroom windows, said Mr Duder. Sites on the old gasworks have been selling well, according to the sales agent, Wrightsons N.M.A., Ltd. Of the 25 lots in the Moorhouse Industrial Park, almost 20 have been sold although Italy four have been built oi- so far. *

Firms establishing on the site include a computer manufacturer, an engineering shop, warehouses, and car-sales yards. Wrightson sales agents say interest in the park sites has been particularly high because they are the only big areas of industrial land available in central Christchurch.