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Students came back from their
Term 3 holidays to an empty space
where Erwin used to stand. The
demolition of Erwin, however, marks
the exciting first phase of building of
our new Gymnasium, the construction
of which started in October and will be
completed by September next year.
Erwin has been a well-used building
in the College’s history and has been
reinvented in different ways. Originally
a single storey classroom block built
in 1922, the second storey was added
in 1925 with three new boarders’
dormitories above the classrooms.
The building was then known as
‘Old Rutherford’.
In 1951 the open-air dormitories with
canvas blinds were replaced with
sliding windows - a real luxury! In 1970
the boarding houses in Old Rutherford
were replaced by the existing three
storey boarding house named the ‘New
Rutherford’ (which by the way was
renamed MacGibbon two years ago!).
‘Old Rutherford’ was also renamed
Erwin back in 1972 and the upstairs
boarding was converted to classrooms.
In 1997 the then historic but
dilapidated Erwin house was moved
on rollers from the quad to make
room for construction of the new
Technology Centre. It was relocated
in 1997 to its present site.
In 2010 all the classrooms in Erwin
were taken over by the Preparatory
School while the new Preparatory
School was built. In the September
earthquake of 2010, it is remarkable
that Erwin survived and it has been
PE classrooms, guidance rooms and
sports offices in the disrupted four
years since then.
Sadly while it has done us proud, the
old building is well past its use-by
date, having served students and
teachers in many guises for 92 years.
We will be saving the doors of the old
house and using them in some way in
future projects.
In other work
happening on
the campus:
Pipe Band room, Outdoor
Education and Maintenance
building
– The Pipe Band room
and Outdoor Education section
is complete and has been
commissioned. This is a lovely
building that has benefited
greatly from the excellent
acoustic engineering advice that
was received. The Maintenance
section of the building will be
finished by mid-January.
Sports and Cultural Centre
(stage 1)
– Construction is well
underway with ground works
in progress by the contractor,
Hawkins Construction. This will
be a 12 month programme.
Chapel
– Ground improvement
will begin in mid-January by
Golder & Associates who won
the tender for the early site
enabling works.
Junior School
– This is still in
the concept planning stage.
Papanui Road sewer pipe
– This was a major piece of
infrastructure work that has
been completed. The old pipe
was damaged in the earthquake,
and this has now been
completely replaced.
1983
– demolition of the end rooms of Erwin -
the Junior House which was added in 1925.
1933
– cricket game with Old Rutherford house - current Erwin house facing quad.
1977
– view of crowded quad buildings at opening of the library.
to
Campus update
Farewell
Erwin
Regulus
Resources and Environment
23