What should happen to Christchurch Cathedral?

This is a very difficult question to answer, not only for me but for most New Zealanders. Everybody knows that the way it is now, it’s unsecure and something has to be done to make the old building safe and usable again. But what?

There are different options: it could be originally restored, rebuild with modern materials or, replaced by a rather modern version. In a report on the issue engineers explain that repairing or restoring only are not an option because it couldn’t fit the “seismic requirement of the new building code.” They say what would be required is an approach of reinstatement, namely “a combination of repair, restauration, reconstruction and seismic strengthening.”

Of course, one of the main reasons why nothing has been decided yet is due to money and time issues. Reinstating the cathedral is probably the most time-consuming and expensive option, while replacing it might go faster and also costs ‘only’ little more than half of it. Either way the sooner a decision will be made the sooner it can be finished and of course money will play the main part in this decision.

I personally think they have already waited with and procrastinated this choice for quite a long time now and it’s time to act. Maybe they should consider a version of the cathedral which fits the seismic code, won’t be too expensive and won’t take too long to be build. And if it doesn’t look exactly like the original one did it won’t matter because the earthquake did happen and why shouldn’t everybody see that the catheral only partly survived and carried along a ‘scar’ from this horrible day 5 years ago?