BROADCASTING CENTRE

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27987, 6 June 1956, Page 14

BROADCASTING CENTRE

GLOUCESTER STREET PLANS

NEW BUILDING AND RENOVATIONS

All sections of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service in Christchurch will eventually be accommodated in Gloucester street. ( Present plans provide for the renovation of the existing 3YA building and the redesigning of its frontage and the erection of a new fivestorey reinforced concrete building on an area of land recently acquired by the service to the east of-its present building. The old and the new buildings will join and the new enlarged block will house the studios and the administrative facilities of all three local broadcasting stations—3YA. 3YC and 3ZB.

The amalgamation of the National Broadcasting Service and the Commercial Service was approved by legislation in 1943 and since then the unification of ,the service has been proceeding. Recehtly the Director of' Broadcasting, Yates, announced,: the appointment b of a district manager, under whom aIU-tsections of the service in Christchurch would be unified. The first district manager is Mr J. F. Skedden. „ Authority has been given to proceed with sketch plans for the proposed building and alterations in Christchurch. They are to be prepared by Mr Paul Pascoe, a Christchurch architect,.,, working in conjunction with the Ministry of Works. Mr E. G. S. Powell, al Christchurch, will be the consulting engineer and acoustic engineers of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service will assist with the design.

When Mr Pascoe recently flew 29,000 miles in nine weeks visiting airports in 15 countries in the course of investigations connected v>ith the planning of Christchurch’s npw air terminal at Harewood, he also studied broadcasting architecture. He said yesterday that he had found the broadcasting centres in Europe qf most interest. Those at Cologne in West Germany, Oslo in Norway and Copenhagen in Denmark were outstanding. The buildings at Hilversum in Holland were also of a very high standard.

In these . European centres, he said, a broadcasting building occupied a very important place in the life of the community. It had a prestige of its own and the whole city took a great pride in it. There/were many features of European broadcasting centres that could well be adapted to New Zealand conditions, said Mr Pascoe. Among these were acoustic finishes, sound proofing methods, and the high general level of architecture and decoration. In England and in the United States of America, he said, the position was very different. In England there was little good broadcasting architecture, and in America there was less still. The reason for this iTi America Would be that sound ’broadcasting had become the poor relative of television.