MUSEUM TENDER ACCEPTED

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27629, 9 April 1955, Page 6

MUSEUM TENDER ACCEPTED

Contract Price About £1404)00 work; to take TWO YEARS

The Canterbury Museum Trust Board has accepted the tender cf Charles S. Luney, Ltd., for the erection of the centennial memorial wing and extensive alterations and modernisation of the existing building. The price is a little more than the £140,000 originally estimated for the project. It is thought that another £lO,OOO will be required to cover professional services connected with the contract. The Museum Trust Board has about £lOO,OOO in hand (the proceeds of the Canterbury centennial and other appeals plus Government subsidy), and the chairman (Professor R. S. Allan) said he was confident that the public of Canterbury would assist in raising the balance within the next two years —the period in which the work is expected to be finished. The new wing will add 40,000 square feet in three floors, thus doubling the total floor space of the museum. Professor Allan said he was happy to report that the Rolleston avenue frontage would be constructed of Port Hills stone, with Oamaru stone facings, thus matching exactly the existing facade oi the old buildings. The successful tenderer has undertaken to complete the work within two years of getting access to the site, part of which is occupied by temporary buildings. The contents of thes<» buildings will have to be removed before the site can be cleared. The architects for the new wing are Messrs Miller, White and Dunn, of Dunedin, whose design was the winning entry of 10 submitted in 1949 in the Dominion-wide competition organised by the Museum Trust Board. The original plans have been considerably revised and include some extra features in the present building, notably the incorporation of part of the present office space in an enlarged foyer at the present public entrance, and thecreation of a garden court between the present New Zealand room and the whale shelter. Public access to the galleries will be through the present main entrance. The Rolleston avenue extension will have a doorway opening on to a public lecture hall, and rooms for use by school classes during the day and by adults at night. Visitors to the new wing will normally enter the building by the present entrance, climbing a realigned staircase to reach a colourful New Zealand bird hall above the present mammal room. Running along the Rolleston avenue frontage will be one of the biggest new galleries, for the fish cf New Zealand waters—including some live specimens in aquariums. Down the Christ’s College side will be a New Zealand geology hall, which will "also contain the massive terrestrial globe already ordered by the board. The whole of the top floor will thus feature New Zealand natural history. A fully-equipped lecture block of 5000 square feet on the ground floor will greatly assist in meeting the extra demands made on the museum’s facilities by school classes. It will also fill a need for adequate meeting spac* for adult groups, such as the Friends of the Museum, in the evenings.