Manchester Courts, Chicago School building in Canterbury Region, New Zealand

Manchester Courts was a seven-story commercial building in central Christchurch, New Zealand, designed in the Chicago School style and set at the corner of Hereford and Manchester Streets. It featured a steel frame, reinforced concrete foundations, and external brick columns along its facade.

The building was commissioned in 1905 by the New Zealand Express Company and designed by architects Sidney and Alfred Luttrell. It was the first structure in Christchurch to apply steel-frame and reinforced concrete techniques drawn from American skyscraper construction.

The building's name changed over time: it was first known as the MLC Building before becoming Manchester Courts. Its design by Sidney and Alfred Luttrell brought the Chicago skyscraper style to New Zealand, a look they also used for the 1908 New Zealand Express House in Dunedin. After the 2010 earthquake, heritage supporters argued that the brick columns could have been reinforced with steel, and during demolition one opponent produced photographs showing substantial steel reinforcement inside.

The building stood at the corner of Hereford and Manchester Streets in central Christchurch. It was demolished between October 2010 and January 2011, so nothing remains on the site today. A 60 m cordon was set up around it during demolition, and the area is now part of the earthquake-affected city centre.

Although seven stories tall, the building was considered a skyscraper at the time it was built because structures of that height were almost unseen in New Zealand. The steel frame hidden inside its brick exterior was a technology that most people in Christchurch had simply never encountered before.