A former employee of the firm that designed the CTV building says that when he resigned from the company, there was nobody left there with experience in designing multi-storey buildings such as the CTV building.
The evidence was given at the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission which is looking into the collapse of the building in which 115 people died.
John Henry worked for Alan Reay Consultants Ltd for one year up until the end of 1985.
While he was not involved in the design of the Canterbury Television building, he designed a building, Landsborough House, which was used by another engineer as a template for the CTV building.
Mr Henry said this building along with two other multi-storey buildings he worked on while at ARCL, were at the limit of what could be achieved and were not desirable structures to be working on.
Evidence has already been heard that Alan Reay, the head of the company, had a reputation for creating buildings that were no stronger and no more expensive than they had to be.
Mr Henry said that when he left the company there was nobody else still working there with experience in building structures such as the CTV building.
