NEW WING FOR MUSEUM

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27569, 28 January 1955, Page 10

NEW WING FOR MUSEUM

TENDERS CLOSE ON MARCH 14

FINAL PLANS SENT TO CONTRACTORS

Final plans for the modernisation of the Canterbury Museum and the erection of the centennial memorial wing were sent to contractors interested yesterday, and firm tenders will close

at 2 p.m. on March 14. Preliminary applications to tender for the work closed just before Christmas, and it was reported that most of the large contractors round Christchurch were interested. Those applying at that time are now receiving the drawings and specifications for the new wing, between the museum and the Christ’s College dining-hall, which will contain a large lecture theatre on the ground floor of the Rolleston avenue frontage, a large Maori hall behind, studios, and workshops. Above will be five New Zealand natural history galleries for fish, geology (including the terrestrial globe, and possibly a planetarium), botany, insects, and small marine creatures. A New Zealand bird hall will give access to the galleries from the present main stairway when the galleries of the present mammal room are floored over. The main stairway itself will be realigned and the entrance foyer widened. Modernisation of the existing building includes a garden court and extensive alterations to present galleries.