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Christchurch Seagull Pit

Birdwatching sites in New ZealandTourist attractions in ChristchurchUrban wildlifeUse New Zealand English from February 2025Vague or ambiguous time from March 2025
Seagull Pit 2025
Seagull Pit 2025

The Seagull Pit is a derelict building site and tourist attraction on Armagh Street in the Christchurch Central City, New Zealand. The pit was formed when the derelict basement of the former PricewaterhouseCoopers Building became flooded by rainwater, attracting wild gulls that built nests there. The building had been demolished following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. In 2024 a Google Maps listing for the location was created, and it was described as a "tongue-in-cheek" tourist attraction in news media.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Christchurch Seagull Pit (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Christchurch Seagull Pit
Armagh Street, Christchurch Christchurch Central (Linwood-Central-Heathcote Community)

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N -43.5285 ° E 172.63786111111 °
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Armagh Street 119
8011 Christchurch, Christchurch Central (Linwood-Central-Heathcote Community)
Canterbury, New Zealand
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Seagull Pit 2025
Seagull Pit 2025
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PGC Building
PGC Building

The PGC Building (also known as the Pyne Gould Corporation building or PGC House) was a five-story postmodern office building in Christchurch, New Zealand. It became infamously associated with the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, with images of the failed structure and stories of trapped survivors having been widely broadcast. Eighteen people were killed in the building during the earthquake, and many more were injured, in what was described as a "catastrophic collapse." It was the second most deadly incident in the earthquake after the CTV Building collapse. Built in the mid-1960s, it was originally used as an office space for the Christchurch Drainage Board. Ownership was transferred to Pyne Gould Corporation in 1997. Over the next decade, the company undertook several projects to renovate the building and also explored options to structurally strengthen it. In 2011 at the time of its collapse, the PGC Building was home to several related companies: PGC, Marac Finance, Perpetual Trust, Leech and Partners, and Marsh Insurance, which operated across different levels. The building had been declared safe to open after four assessments following the 2010 Canterbury earthquake and subsequent aftershocks, but some staff in the building raised concerns after noticing cracks appearing in columns. A Royal Commission report found that the ductility of the building was poor and the design could not have legally been built according to 2011 building code standards. At the time it was designed, ductile detailing processes had not been introduced as standard. Consequently, the PGC Building was earthquake-prone by modern standards. Despite structural performance having been investigated during the renovation in the late 90s, the standards of the time did not flag the PGC Building as being at risk, and subsequent renovations were considered to be of good standard. After earthquake performance standards were changed in the 2000s, Holmes Consulting Group performed a full seismic assessment in 2007 on the structure and deemed it would perform "reasonably well" in a report that was accepted by the Christchurch City Council. Other structural assessments also did not find the building posed a risk. The commission concluded that the main factor in the failure of the building was the intense force in the east–west direction of the building overwhelming the structure, which met less than 40% of the building code in 2011.