PGC Building

Christchurch Central, New Zealand

No longer standing

Demolished or destroyed.

The PGC Building was a five-story postmodern office structure completed in 1966 in Christchurch's central district, originally constructed for the Christchurch Drainage Board. After Pyne Gould Corporation acquired the building in 1997, the company undertook renovations and explored structural strengthening options over the following decade. During the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the building suffered catastrophic collapse, killing eighteen people and injuring many others—the second deadliest incident in the disaster after the CTV Building. A Royal Commission investigation revealed that the structure had poor ductility and lacked the ductile detailing standards introduced later in seismic design; had it been designed to 2011 building codes, such construction would have been illegal. Despite a 2007 seismic assessment deeming it would perform "reasonably well," the building was ultimately deemed earthquake-prone by contemporary standards, and it was demolished in 2011.