The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Canterbury earthquakes will turn its focus to the spectacular failure of one of Christchurch's tallest buildings.
No one was killed when the 26-storey Grand Chancellor Hotel partially collapsed, but crumpled internal stairs and the building's 1.5-metre lean provided a striking illustration of the effects of the February 22 quake.
The hearing is set down for two days from Tuesday and will include evidence from the hotel's manager Steve Martin, via a video link, the Christchurch City Council and engineering experts.
Last year, a Department of Building and Housing report into the collapse said the hotel, built between 1985 and 1988, was well designed and contained state-of-the-art structural features, but a sheer wall, which carried about one-eighth of the building's mass, "failed in a brittle manner".
As a result, the southeast corner of the building dropped by about 800mm and the top leaned by about 1.3 metres.
Work has started on demolishing the building, and is scheduled to be finished in April.
It is the biggest demolition job New Zealand has seen, costing $10 million, where the building is being "nibbled" at from the top down.
NZN