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The changing face of Christchurch
The east side of Montreal Street has changed a lot since the early 1970s
when carpenter Harry Gavin used to park his old Vauxhall outside his inner-city
flat. Harry’s changed a bit since then too. These days he is back on his
old patch as part of the C Lund and Son Contractors’ crew building the
city’s new art gallery. “There was a car dealership behind our flat and
a Girls High tennis court over there on the Gloucester Street corner,”
he says. “The tennis court tarmac was still there right up until about
a month ago when we got working in that corner. They’d been parking cars
on it for all those years.” Like Harry, many of the Lund workers on the
gallery site are originally from Timaru. He says they are a tightknit
family. “It’s the best crew I’ve ever worked with,” Harry says. “They’re
a good bunch of blokes and the management looks after us well. This has
been a good job, not bad at all.” Christchurch
Art Gallery Fact File Building
the gallery is taking: The new gallery
(15,722 sq m) complex will be six times bigger than the Robert McDougall
Art Gallery (2289sq m). The project is on track to open in April next
year. |