Canterbury Museum’s $262m redevelopment moves ahead, despite budget shortfall

Tuesday, 9 June 2026

Dozens of base isolators are now in place as part of Canterbury Museum’s $261.9m redevelopment, which will keep its collection of 2.3m items safe from earthquakes.

Work on the redevelopment in Rolleston Ave began in 2023 and is not expected to finish until mid-2029 following delays, cost increases and budget shortfalls.

Close to 80 people are working on the site at the moment, museum director Anthony Wright said.

“Work on the museum redevelopment is progressing very well.”

A six-metre deep basement has been excavated and 75 base isolators have been installed under what will become the new main building.

Work continues on the six metre deep basement at the Canterbury Museum site on Rolleston Ave.

Another 34 base isolators will be placed under the Robert McDougall Art Gallery. A complicated series of piles and supports are holding up the art gallery as the ground underneath it is dug out, down to six metres. The basement under the gallery is expected to be finished later this year.

Base isolators act as shock absorbers and protect buildings from damage during earthquakes.

A 12-metre-deep retaining wall has already been built around the perimeter of the development.

A digger operates underneath the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, which is supported by a complicated series of piles and supports.

Wright said the outer basement floor for the new building was substantially complete. About 2100 cubic metres of concrete - enough to fill about 300 concrete trucks - had been poured into the outer basement floor, reinforced with 347 tonnes of steel.

The cost of the project has jumped from $195m in 2020 to $261.9m, and the project still has a significant funding gap.

Earlier this year, the museum said it needed an additional $91.9m. It had been seeking $32m each from central and local government and said it would raise the remaining $27.9m via philanthropists, trusts and grants, wills and through various partnerships.

Close to 80 staff are working across the site.

Since then Christchurch City Council has agreed to give the museum $15m plus a $28.6m loan, with interest, to be paid back over 25 years via an international visitor charge.

However, the money was contingent on the Government also fronting up with at least $15m.

The Government has so far been non-committal about additional funding for the museum.

The museum was also seeking a total of $4.8m, split between Selwyn, Waimakariri and Hurunui district councils.

Liam Craven, external project manager, inside the Mountfort Gallery, which was the first museum building on the site in 1870.

It has enough money to complete the basement and building, but only to the point that they are weatherproof and insurable.

The museum has warned the longer it takes to secure additional money, the more it will cost to finish the project - about $7.2m a year.

Christchurch city councillors have in the past questioned the decision to build the basement under the new museum rather than house the collection offsite, but were told by the museum the basement was the most cost effective option in the long-term.