PREVENTION OF FIRE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25705, 18 January 1949, Page 3

PREVENTION OF FIRE

STANDARD by-law to be prepared

jib v. R. J. HEAN advisory ARCHITECT For the preparation of standard fire -rotection by-laws for New Zealand, far Victor B. J. Hean, an architect Sth the Ministry of Works in Christ- • church, has been selected as advisory architect by the Standards Institute. Mr Hean has been seconded from the Ministry of Works and will leave Christchurch to-morrow for Wellington, where he will be stationed for several months. Both Mr Hean and Mr P. C. Cornish (district architect) received the commendation of the senior counsel for the Crown (Mr G. G. G. Watson) for their work as technical advisers to the Crown in the inquiry into Ballantyne’s fire and in the preparations o f plans, models and expert evidence. After being on the architectural staff of the Christchurch City Conucil, Mr Hean specialised in hospital planning and was architect to the Palmerston North Hospital Board for five years. He was also in the Government Architect’s office in Wellington before returning to Christchurch. He has given many lectures on fire protection, aerodrome planning, and town planning. He is a son of Mr R. B. Hean, who is a past president of both the United and Canterbury Fire Brigades’ Associations and a former captain of the Addington Railway Fire Brigade. From St. Michael’s School and the West Christchurch District High School, Mr Hean went to the School of Art of Canterbury University College and took a degree in architecture. His first employers were P. Graham and Son, who, later, were to build the M.E.D. building, the external design of which is Mr Hean’s most notable work in the city. He also worked for Mr H. St. A. Murray before he continued his training under Mr A. R. Galbraith. For nine years, Mr Hean was assistant city architect to the City Council, from whose employ he resigned to go to Palmerston North before the detailed plans for the M.E.D. building were drawn. Buildings Designed While with the City Council, Mr Hean designed the women’s rest rooms in Cathedral square, the Edmonds band rotunda, the Carlton Mill, Gloucester street and Colombo street bridges, the new abattoir, and the libraries at St. Martins, Opawa, and •Beckenham, and the alterations to the libraries at Spreydon and Waltham. His major town planning architectural work was the drawings for the Avonside boulevard. Mr Hean’s appointment follows a recommendation of the. Royal Commission into Ballantyne’s fire: “That the Now Zealand Standards Institute be given facilities to complete its fire prevention by-law within six months, and that it be made to apply throughout New Zealand within three months of its coming into force.” Plans prepared by Mr Hean showing the assumed spread of smoke and fire in three stages at Ballant yne’s fire have been published as an appendix to the report of the commission.