Magnificent New Buildings

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28512, 15 February 1958, Page 15

Magnificent New Buildings

The International Harvester Company’s magnificent hew buildings in Blenheim road, Christchurch, incorporates all the latest designs to give pleasant office accommodation and efficient workshops. Ultra-modern Offices The office block is a two-storey building of 10,000 cubic feet, built of reinforced concrete. The concrete for the columns and floor totalled 610 cu. yds. Thirty-three tons of steel went into the reinforcing. The ceiling is of metal acoustic tiles.

The whole of the front wall xs glazed, with the balance of the frontal area faced with Dunedin brick. The entrance to the building is of armoured plate glass.

MR R. W. MORGAN retired four years ago after 50 years’ service with the International Harvester Company; but he remains a director. He joined the firm of D. M. Osborne and Company,. Christchurch, in 1904, and in 1909 transferred to the Christchurch brand) of the International Harvester Company of America in 1909, remaining when it became the International Harvester Company of New Zealand Ltd., in 1912. He rose to accountant in the first years of the new company and was appointed sales manager in 1919. Mr Morgan was appointed managing director in 1926 and chairman of the board of directors in 1952.

The staircase is free standing and of reinforced concrete, with an armoured plate balustrade. There is flush fluorescent lighting. Individual offices have been provided of the open, plain type with plate glass partitions. The conference room is panelled in Queensland maple, the end wall being of rimu with a fitting dais screen and blackboard. The managing director’s office is panelled in Agba veneer. 70,329 sq. ft. of Workshops •The workshop covers an area of 70,329 sq. ft. It is a single-storey building of structural steel, covered with Galbestos protected metal. The walls and floor are of brick and concrete. The saw-tooth construction is glazed with aluminium patent frames with steelframed windows to the exterior.

MR JACK M. BURDETTE was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors and Managing Director of the International Harvester Company of New Zealand, Ltd., on August 1, 1957. He has had extensive experience with International Harvester, both at home and abroad. He began his service on December 16. 1938, as collector in the Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) district office, and during the next 10 years he advanced rapidly through a series of positions until in 1947 he was retail motor truck sales manager in Philadelphia. On September 1 of that year he transferred to foreign operations and was appointed manager of sales of the International Harvester Company of Great Britain in London. On January 1, 1954, he was transferred to the Internationa] Harvester Company of Australia, Pty., Ltd., as director of sales, a position which he held until his appointment with the New Zealand company.

The whole site covers eight acres and includes a siding which can carry 14 LA railway waggons. A 15-ton crane operates over the siding for loading ana unloading.

The company has its own power scheme comprising a transformer from the main grid. The floor of the workshop is of one-inch granolithic finish. To accommodate heavy loading inside the building a hexagon floor has been provided. The whole building is 160 feet wide with an 80ft span between columns.

Housed within the workshop is a parts depot, a printing room, a cafeteria, a truck assembly, and a farm machinery assembly. The architects were Trengrove, Trengcove and Marshall. Mr Guy Powell >was the constructional engineer, and Messrs Tomlinson and Dickson were the surveyors.

MR C. J. ROBINSON began nis service as accounts clerk in the general office in Christchurch in 1920, became shipping clerk, and then had charge of stock records, the Palmerston North and Auckland district offices. Mr Robinson then returned to Christchurch and in 1925 was in charge of customs and costing. He became secretary of the company in 1936. His appointment as a director of the New Zealand Company was-made in 1952.