COMMERCIAL BUILDING

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28217, 4 March 1957, Page 10

COMMERCIAL BUILDING

Behind Expansion Of Cities (Ntw Zea la no Press Association) AUCKLAND, March 3. It was a pity that, with the economic depression followed so closely by the Second World War and the post-war controls, commercial building had not kept pace with New Zealand’s expansion, said the Deputy-Mayor of Auckland, Mr K. N. Buttle, last night when he was opening the New Zealand architectural convention.

The only structure of this type of any importance erected in Auckland for many years was a recently completed insurance company building in Queen street, he said.

It was interesting to note that since the war Auckland had added another “city” to itself every two years, said Professor C. R. Knight, Dean of the Department of Architecture at the Auckland University College, ;n reply. Growth had produced many problems of national importance. Construction of commercial buildings had been well behind, and the centre of the city was outdated and therefore inefficient.

Professor Knight said the the country could spend millions of pounds on “tinkering,” but the opportunity existed for co-ordin-ated planning. We had the opportunity to make the towns and cities of New Zealand as modern and as beautiful as any in the world, he said.