Our museum building sits on land owned by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. This comprises 2.3019 hectares.
We also lease:
5,689 square metres from Wellington Waterfront Ltd on our northern and north-eastern boundaries, which includes plantings
two small blocks from Wellington City Council on our south-eastern corner – containing the grassed area at the corner of Cable and Barnett Streets, and a small portion of our bus lane and car park.
Our building sits close to a major fault line on soft, reclaimed land – how do we keep our taonga
taongatreasuresMāori | noun and people safe?
To stabilise the site, 30-tonne weights were dropped on the ground 50,000 times – much to the dismay of nearby residents! Shock absorbers made of rubber and lead allow the building to move in earthquakes – up to half a metre in any direction.
In a major earthquake, Te Papa would be among the safer places in Wellington.
In a one-in-250-year earthquake, the building would be unharmed.
In a one-in-500-year earthquake, the building would need repairs.
In a one-in-2000-year earthquake (‘the big one’), the people and collections inside Te Papa would be safe, but the building might have to be demolished.