Forsyth Barr Building Hearing

The Commission conducted a public hearing on 23 and 24 February 2012 in which we considered all issues relevant to the failure of the Forsyth Barr building in the earthquake of 22 February 2011.

The Commission considered:

• whether the building as originally designed and constructed complied with earthquake-risk and other legal and best-practice requirements both when it was designed and constructed and on or before 4 September 2010;
• whether any alterations to, and maintenance of, the building complied with earthquake-risk and other legal and best-practice requirements both when they were carried out and on or before 4 September 2010;
• why the building failed on 22 February 2011;
• whether there were any particular features of the building that contributed to its failure;
• the nature of the land associated with the building and how it was affected by the Canterbury earthquakes;
• whether the building had been identified as earthquake-prone on or before 4 September 2010;
• whether the building was subject to required or voluntary measures to make it less susceptible to earthquake risk and the compliance standards they had achieved;
• the performance of the building and any damage sustained in the earthquake of 4 September 2010 and the aftershocks down to 22 February 2011;
• the nature and effectiveness of any inspections of the building or other actions taken in respect of it following the 4 September earthquake down to 22 February 2011;
• the results of the investigation carried out by the Department of Building and Housing into the building; and
• any other issues relevant to the building under the Commission's Terms of Reference.

Timetable

Date	Time	Presenter	Role/Organisation
23 February	9.30am	Opening Statement by Stephen Mills QC	Counsel Assisting the Commission
	10.50am	Grant Cameron	GCA Laywers (tenant of the Forsyth Barr building)
	11.20am	BREAK
	11.35am	Ewan Carr	Tenant of the Forsyth Barr building
	11.55am	Rob Jury and Dr Richard Sharpe	Structural engineers, BECA. Authors of the Department of Building and Housing's technical investigation report into the Forsyth Barr stairs
	1.30pm	LUNCH
	2pm	Rob Jury and Dr Richard Sharpe
	3.05pm	Professor Nigel Priestley	Member of the Department of Building and Housing's expert panel
	4.05pm	Steve McCarthy	Environmental Policy and Approvals Manager, Christchurch City Council
	4.35pm	ADJOURNMENT
24 February	9.30am	Paul Tonkin	Site manager for the construction of the Forsyth Barr building (formerly employed by Fletcher Construction)
	10.15am	John Hare	Structural engineers for the Forsyth Barr  building; instructed by building owner to carry out post-earthquake assessment following the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
	10.20am	BREAK
	10.30am	John Hare
	11.45am	Des Bull	Adjunct Professor University of Canterbury School of Engineering (author of 'Stairs and Access Ramps Between Floors in Multistorey Buildings')
	12.30pm	HEARING COMPLETE

Counsel Appearing

• Duncan Laing and Nadine Daines, Simpson Grierson for Christchurch City Council
• Garth Galloway of Chapman Tripp for Beca 
• John Hannan of DLA Phillips Fox for Holmes Consulting Group

Submissions

No submissions were received.

Related Reports

Department of Building and Housing technical investigation reports

Department of Building and Housing technical investigation reports: peer review by William Holmes 

'Stairs and Access Ramps Between Floors in Multi-Storey Buildings' by Adjunct Professor Des Bull, August 2011