STEEL HUTS FOR COLLEGES

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25388, 10 January 1948, Page 5

STEEL HUTS FOR COLLEGES

NINE INTENDED FOR UNIVERSITY ERECTION TO BEGIN SOON Steel buildings, used as Army hospital units in the Pacific during the war, have now arrived in Christchurch and will be erected at Canterbury University College, Canterbury Agricultural College, and the Christchurch Technical College to relieve the acute shortage of accommodation for staff and students. The opinion was expressed by builders yesterday that, though these units are “not masterpieces of architectural beauty,” they will be of great assistance in accommodating expected heavy roll numbers this year, and should also be of use for many years for other purposes when permanent building at colleges is possible. The steel huts have been dismantled into sections for shipment and are stated to be readily reassembled. Walls and roof are all steel, but alternative arrangements made be made for flooring. The roof is ridge shaped. The floor measurement is 48 by 20 feet. Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, already has three of. the buildings erected and they were used late last year as lecture rooms, with small staff offices attached. Three more are at present being reconstructed and these will be used as laboratories this year. Canterbury University College, which has been awaiting the arrival of its quota for several months, has now taken delivery of nine. The sections are stacked bn the site reserved for the new School of Art on the corner of Gloucester and Montreal streets. Contracts have been let for the erection of eight and the last will be set up later. Work will probably start next week on reconstruction of the first eight buildings. They will be placed behind the registrar’s office and behind the new temporary geography block on the Worcester street side and on vacant sections fronting Hereford street where already a large number of wooden Army huts are in use. A group of four steel huts will be set up for use by the physics department, a single hut will be attached to the registrar’s office as an annexe, another single unit will be used by the education department, and two are intended for U9e as a drawing room and laboratory by the engineering department. The last hut, when the contract has been let, will be erected for the storage purposes of the university library. Tenders have been called for the erection of one similar .hut at the Christchurch Technical College. This will be used as a domestic science room with a cloak room and lockers attached and a small kitchen. Alterations will be made to have all the 11 main windows down one side.