page_title: St Elmo Courts
section_title: Structural design and failure mechanism
hierarchical_section_title: St Elmo Courts / Structural design and failure mechanism
caption_attribution_description: (Wed 2-March-2011) St Elmo Courts on Hereford Street was further damaged by the Tuesday 22 February 2011 magnitude 6.3 earthquake that ripped through Christchurch.
context_page_description: St Elmo Courts was a residential high rise building constructed in 1930 in the city centre of Christchurch, New Zealand. Used mainly as an office building in later years, it had a Category II heritage listing by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. It was demolished in March 2011, having suffered significant damage in the 2010 Canterbury earthquake and more damage in the subsequent February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.
context_section_description: St Elmo Court had a light reinforced concrete frame that was infilled with masonry. Following the 4 September 2010 earthquake, diagonal shear cracks were visible in the façade in the vertical piers. One column had a shear failure. The damage became more extensive in the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
caption: Shear failure detail.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot G10", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "PictureProject 1.7.5 W", "Image DateTime": "2011:03:03 14:06:09", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "2336", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7576", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5933", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/2000", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:03:02 18:41:11", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:03:02 18:41:11", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "351/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "181/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "139/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "61/2", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1200", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1600", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "945205479/50000", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "945205479/50000", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "69/20", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4202"}