On 28 October a fire went through half of a wing of the east quad block, central stairway to the end wall. Fortunately, the site was unoccupied as the campus has now moved to the old Avonside Girls High site while the rebuild is undertaken. This meant damage was limited to the building and there was none of the loss of content that is so devastating for a school, however the fact that vandals would deliberately attack our old school was very disappointing.
Principal Dick Edmundson was outraged that it appears the fire was deliberately lit: “someone has done this to our school, done this to 65 years of Linwood HS-Linwood College”.
As a result of the fire demolition began on the school October 29 with the Ministry informing the school that Southbase Construction had been awarded the demolition contract, and that the demolition would begin immediately.
On the 25 November the Ministry of Education announced Southbase had also been selected as the main construction contractor.
Principal Edmundson feels that Linwood College is very fortunate to have been allocated Southbase as the construction company. “They are a major player in the Christchurch market with a number of high-profile projects. The Central Bus Exchange building was Southbase, and, in a wonderful partnership for a stunning, landmark building, both the architects and building contractor for Tūranga, the central library, were our architects and building contractor: Architectus and Southbase.
We left Aldwins Rd in order to be able to return so it simply does not come any better than that. It truly is Linwood’s turn.”
Note: Linwood College At Otakaro is the name of the College while it is on its temporary site.