NEW BUILDING.

Auckland Star, 2 September 1933, Page 11

NEW BUILDING.

PUNEDIN POST OFFICE. CONTRACT FOR £292,448 LET. ERECTION IN THREE YEARS. The tender for the new Post Office at Dunedin has been let to the Fletcher Construction Company, which has contracted to erect the building in three years at a cost of £292,448. In announcing the acceptance of the firm's tender the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. J; Bitchener, said that tenders had been received from well-known firms in r various parts of the Dominion, and the prices quoted were all in the vicinity of the Department's estimate. The post office will be an eight-storey structure of structural steel and concrete, specially strengthened against earthquake. New Zealand stone, granite from the Bluff, Putaruru stone and New Zealand marble, will be used for facings, and all the" structural steel will be of British manufacture. The new building is to be erected on the site occupied by the old post office, which building was demolished five years ago. The area is a whole city block, and is approximately 142 ft by 150 ft. It ie bounded by Princes, Bond, Water and Liverpool Streets. The exterior design is, in the main, modern, with no cornices or other projections, except on the Princes Street frontage. Here at the entrance there will be a distinguishing Renaissance feature embodying four Corinthic columns. On each facade of the four first storeys wide windows will extend, with bronze panels between them. The facades of the two lower storeys will be faced with Bluff granite, while tbe Putaruru stone will feature the external walls of the upper storeys. The contractors announce tha. not a great deal of work will be done for a couple of months, pending the arrival of tlie steel. There are about 2400 tons of it, and much of it will'be specially ordered from England. The work will give employment to a variety of tradesmen, who will mostly be engaged in Dunedin. Much of the foundation work has already been done by the Public Works Department. The lower five storeys will be occupied by the Post and Telegraph Department, and the remainder by other Government Departments which are now housed in scattered rented premises. The most modern heating, lighting and fire-pro-tecting, systems will be installed, and there will be specially designed conveyors for handling mails in bulk. ,