page_title: Implosion of Radio Network House
section_title: Auction
hierarchical_section_title: Implosion of Radio Network House / Auction
caption_attribution_description: English: Isaac Theatre Royal in August 2015
context_page_description: The implosion of Radio Network House in 2012 was the first implosion used in New Zealand to demolish a building, and was a "test case" for the potential to use such a demolition method on similar buildings in Christchurch Central City that had been damaged in the 2011 earthquake. Like most other large buildings in central Christchurch, Radio Network House was damaged beyond repair in the 2011 earthquake, and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority added it to the demolition list in August 2011. In July 2012, it was announced that the building was going to be imploded, involving a specialist company from the United States with considerable experience in this type of work.
  The right to push the button for the implosion was put up for auction on Trade Me, and became that website's third most viewed auction. The winning bid of NZ$26,000 was made by a consortium of demolition contractors, who allowed the Child Cancer Foundation to nominate a six-year-old boy from Queenstown to trigger the event.
context_section_description: Soon after the announcement was made that the implosion had been approved, it was reported that the demolition contractors considered putting the right to push the button for the implosion up for auction, with the proceeds going to charity. "I've seen them go for $6,000" is how one of the company representatives was quoted, but the issue of liability needed to be worked through. The auction was set up on the internet auction website Trade Me and went live on Tuesday, 24 July, at 11 am. It was set up with a $1 reserve (meaning that theoretically, the right to push the button could have been sold for just $1). The auction was hugely popular and within one hour, bidding had reached $6,000. Bidding reached $30,000, but some bids were considered illegitimate and Trade Me staff removed them, and in other cases, bidders themselves requested to be removed.
  When the auction closed, it had received the third highest number of viewers of Trade Me auctions, at 459,420 views. The winning bid was $26,000, placed by a consortium of eight demolition contractors who at the time were undertaking demolitions in the Christchurch Central City (D Construction, Dormer Construction, Jurgens Demolition, March Construction, Pro Tranz Contracting, Clampet Developments, Shilton and Brown Demolition, and Ward's Demolition). They gave the right to choose a person to push the button to the Child Cancer Foundation, who nominated a six-year-old boy from Queenstown.
  The charity chosen to receive the proceeds of the auction was the Canterbury Earthquake Heritage Buildings Fund, who passed the funds to the Isaac Theatre Royal in Gloucester Street, a heritage building registered as Category I by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (since renamed to Heritage New Zealand). The Government of New Zealand pledged to match donations towards the restoration of heritage buildings dollar for dollar, so the final amount received by the Isaac Theatre Royal was NZ$52,000. The restored Isaac Theatre Royal reopened in November 2014.
caption: Proceeds from the auction have gone to the restoration of the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch, which reopened in 2014
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-RX100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "DSC-RX100 v1.00", "Image DateTime": "2015:08:23 16:36:13", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "286", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail ImageDescription": "", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-RX100", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail Software": "DSC-RX100 v1.00", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2015:08:23 16:36:13", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "26946", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9666", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "125", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "125", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:08:23 16:36:13", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:08:23 16:36:13", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "11237/1280", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "217/128", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "52/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5472", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3648", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "26654", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "28", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[52/5, 371/10, 9/5, 49/10]"}