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The Press Building, Christchurch

The Press Building located in Cathedral Square in Christchurch was the home of The Press between 1909 and February 2011. The building in perpendicular Gothic is registered with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a Category I heritage item, with the registration number 302.

The Press was founded in 1861 by James FitzGerald in order to oppose the politics of his political rival William Sefton Moorhouse.
The building was constructed using reinforced concrete, one of the first in Christchurch to utilise this technique, to support the weight of the printing presses.

The building was sold in 2008 to the Australian company Ganellen. The redevelopment plan was to build a new head office for The Press on an adjacent site in Gloucester Street, and the historic Press Building was to be refurbished as "an A-grade commercial building".


The building was damaged in the 2010 Canterbury earthquake, and the company vacated the building on 8 September 2010. The building was certified for use again. It suffered significant damage in the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake with the top floor collapsing; one employee died, several people were seriously injured and many staff were trapped in the rubble. The earthquake hit two weeks before staff were due to move into the adjacent new office building. The building is to be demolished.

Press Building

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