EXHIBITION HOTEL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 94, 18 October 1939, Page 11

EXHIBITION HOTEL

OPENING TODAY

ROOM FOR 500 GUESTS

Well ahead of Exhibition time, the Exhibition Hotel, Evans Bay, is completed and today is staffed and is ready t.o receive guests, though the full staff of over 40, under the direction of Mrs. Harold Tiller, will not be built up till nearer the first-day of the Exhibition, November 8.

. Built and furnished at a cost.of over P 40,000, the Exhibition Hotel is by far the largest in thi Dominion. It has tw" storeys over a ground space of 176 feet by 157 feet, and its 220 bedrooms give accommodation for approximately 500 guests.

The first proposal was that the hotel should be built at the Exhibition site itself, but though this location would have had the immediate advantage of proximity to the Exhibition, the hotel would have had to be demolished after less than a year of usefulness, as the Exhibition site is to be taken over for the enlargement of Rongotai Airport as soon as the buildings can be cleared. It is not intended that the hotel is to be regarded as permanent, though it is built solidly for its type of construction, but obviously it can serve for several years at least while Wellington endeavours to overhaul the acute housing shortage. That was the main consideration which led to the decision to change the location to Evans Bay, still within a few minutes of the Exhibition, more pleasantly situated and sheltered, and better located as a hotel after the Exhibition. Under the agreement between the hotel company and the City Council, which has a substantial financial interest in the venture as an essential adjunct to the Exhibition, the hotel has a term of five yearsA REAL SPEED ACHIEVEMENT. The hotel was designed by Mr. Edmund Anscombe, architect for the Exhibition buildings, and was built by the Fletcher and Love Construction Company, who have built the Exhibition group and a great part of its interior. Both design and construction nave been speed achievements, for through the change in location some weeks were lost The contractors laid their plans lor converging lines of approach, and before the first flooring board was nailed a dozen sub-contrac-tors were busy with woodwork/ furnishings, and fittings. Today /those lines have met, just three monthis after the site was taken over. ) Because the height is two / storeys one does not gain a true ides£ from a casual inspection of the scatfe of the hotel, but it is huge. The dihing-room, on the ground floor, sets .the pace, for 250 guests can -be seated/at once. The kitchen, in charge of an expert dietitian and equipped with the;'latest in cooking equipment, cool stores, a separate cake kitchen, mixers, and electrical and gas appliances, is/ on a corresponding scale. j There are two louftges on the ground floor, beautifully /urnished in brown, but the main lounge is on the floor above, a .iplencUd room, furnished in green and rust,/'with ceiling-high windows along ilis 80ft front giving a splendid panoramic view of Evans Bay and the hafrbour. The greater number of the* bedrooms are on this floor, fitted as. single, double, and party rooms, well furnished, and each having a fire escape on the outside wall as well *£s the clear passage ways and wide' staircases inside; the alarm system is very complete.

the building is centrally heated from a jboiler house separate from the main block. Lighting in the public rooms is in the modern, indirect style, and the furnishing throughout is Comfortable and • attractive.. Apart from the usual amenities there are quite a few special features. The hotel, for instance, has its own postal counter.inquiry offices for the assistance of visitors to Wellington, and a motor park and facilities for car parties. There are telephone booths on both floors, and sweet and tobacco counters are attached to each lounge, in addition to the main booths in the entrance foyer. The staff has its own dining-room and lounges and a flat of about twenty bedrooms.