"LITTLE JEWEL BOXES."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 95, 23 April 1928, Page 9

"LITTLE JEWEL BOXES."

MODERN AMERICAN HOMES.

ORNAMENTAL BATHROOMS.

PLENTY OF PLUMBING.

Mr. E. W. Sankey, an architect, who has been actively employed in designing theatres for western cities in the United States is a passenger to Sydney by the Niagara. He expressed great pleasure at what he termed "the delightful appearance of Auckland with its quaint red roofs and classic architecture of some buildings I can see in the distance." He was referring to the War Memorial Museum and the University. "This is presidential year," he said, "and things are pretty quiet in the States, and I am going to have a look at Australia. If I don't like the country I am coming back to Auckland, which already has made a great impression upon me." Mr. Sankey spoke of what he termed the development of domestic architecture in America. . "Bathrooms and kitchens," he said, "are costing more money than anything else in the house. I am speaking of the ordinary smaller house occupied by the wage earners. It is surprising the amount of lavish plumbing put into the bathrooms. This evolution seems to be national, and any house that has not a lavish bathroom and kitchen and a large bedroom is v~ry hard to sell. I can only liken tlio two rooms to little jewel boxes. Ihe other living rooms don't seem to count."

Mr. Sankev mentioned that a new development was the establishment of bungalow courts. A piece of land would be taken up and a beautiful central pardon with the houses facing it would be a feature of tlie -lay-out. These bungalow courts were usually built in localities which it was considered would later become industrial or shopping areas, the bungalows being built with the object of the land paying for itself until such time as the property was needed for business purposes.