Our remarkable Christchurch school building has been attracting some attention recently, both online and offline. Offline, it is in an art exhibition on Worcester Boulevard; online, it has been featured on the Christchurch Art Gallery’s blog.
What makes our building so special? Its age for one thing. Built in 1928, it is a Grade II listed Heritage Building. Our historic premises were designed by Mr Cecil Wood in neo-Georgian style architecture. The building had 3 former lives before it housed Languages International. It was a women’s secretarial college, a lawyers’ office, and a (different) English language school. Number 69 has been Languages International’s home since 2006.
Here is the painting of our building being featured in the art exhibition.
1960s painting of our school building by Ivy Fife, who had a studio just down the road where the art gallery now stands.
The painting is accompanied by this comment from Architectural Historian,
Jenny May:
“Ivy Fife captures a 1960s piece of social history, a
moment in time, and a record of an area by focusing in colour on a small
brick Georgian building by architect Cecil Wood, as though it has just
caught her eye - an unintentionally prophetic view, as this is now a
rare survivor in the area.”
Before moving in, Languages International had the building strengthened. As a result, the damage from the earthquake
that struck in 2011 was minimal. After the earthquake, we had the
building further strengthened and upgraded. As you can see from the
recent photo above, our 84-year-old building looks just as good now as
the day it was built.
If you want to see inside, take a look at the pictures here.
Written by Hannah Robinson at Languages International
25 July 2012
The Secret Life of 69 Worcester Boulevard
20 July 2012
New Experiences - Cheese Tasting in Christchurch
On Wednesday ten of us went to the Cheese Mongers. This shop is only 5 minutes away from Languages International Christchurch. Sarah, the owner, gave us an interesting talk about the cheeses in the cold room. Some of the cheese is very special – for example a Swiss cheese which costs $100 a kilo and is made by hand in only one small village in Switzerland. New Zealand cheeses are also stocked, and students enjoyed tasting everything. For some of them, it was the first time they had tasted blue cheese, sheep’s or goat’s milk cheese. Not everybody liked all the tastes, but we all had a good time!
See more photos of our visit to the Cheese Mongers on Facebook.
Story and photos by Sally Browning, a teacher at Languages International
06 July 2012
Students Vote Languages International "Best Language School in New Zealand"
Languages International wins inaugural EducationStars award.
"Uniquely in the international education industry, the EducationStars Award is awarded based on student ratings only." explains Franziska Pfister, Marketing Manager at EducationStars.
"The EducationStars Award shows that your educational services, quality and customer satisfaction are recognised by your students. At the same time potential clients can see the emphasis your school is placing on these points."
Languages International is in good company with this award; 6 other IALC schools were voted best in their countries.
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Written by Hannah Robinson at Languages International
Category: News
