Major Reconstruction Gives Store Modern New Entrance

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28869, 14 April 1959, Page 12

Major Reconstruction Gives Store Modern New Entrance

When Mr J. L. Hay cuts a ribbon at a staff function today to officially open the new entrance to his firm’s store in Colombo street he will also be marking the completion of one of the largest and most complicated internal reconstruction jobs in the city area for several years. The reconstruction, with the aim of increasing Hay’s, Ltd.’s Colombo street frontage and store space, has involved combining the large four-storey Fletcher Building with the single-storey former Madison’s building. To do that, the contractors had to remove about 240 linear feet of concrete boundary and subdividing walls and also a concrete stairwell, huge reinforced columns and a 34ft high fire escape tower. A large construction team worked extra shifts for weeks before Christmas to ensure that part of the reconstruction was completed in time to cope with the Christmas shopping rush. The southern portion of lhe new shopping frontage was completed in the last three months.

The £25,000 contract involved the removal of massive 18in wide concrete column supports at the _front of the building to make room for a continuous modern show-case front. Another constructional feature ,of the alterations was the pouring of a floor slab 40ft by 10ft in area to cover a former light well and mark a continuous floor joining the front first-floor portion of Fletchers Building with the re-. mainder of Hay’s, Ltd., first floor space. The contract has involved highly complex structural engineering problems in the resupporting of hundreds of tons of superstructure to make safe and possible the removal of the concrete partitions and heavy columns on the groond floor to give open merchandising space. By unobtrusive structural designing a system of reinforced concrete and steel frames was introduced into the open space provided by the removal of the concrete division walls to make the 35-year-old four-storey building completely safe against earthquake. The old foundations have been strengthened by underpinning. A misleadingly slender but exceptionally strong reinforced steel and composite steel and concrete circular column will be the focal point of the design to support some 70 tons bearing load above the shop to make possible the clear standing shop front.

This column, only about .11 inches in diameter, has been de signed for special strength with two 6in by 6in by five-eights inch angle steel welded toe to toe. Covered with mosaic material, this column will be one of the most important yet unobtrusive of the system of supports for the replacing of the former concrete division walls.

This column has made possible the cutting back of deep canti-

levered beams to provide more room for suspended ceilings above. The foot of this support-column has been bedded into a 17 feet by 8 feet concrete slab to prevent possibility of subsidence. The structural engineer for the project is Mr I. L. Holmes.

The reconstruction tyas provided an important new contribution to Christchurch’s modern shopping amenities in the central Colombo street area.

It has provided about 80ft of additional frontage to Hay’s, Ltd., and has also given the firm one of the biggest clear merchandising spaces in Christchurch. The total

floor space with the new additions amounts to more than 10,000 square feet.

In the first floor of the former Fletchers Building the alterations have brought in an additional 1200 square feet of office space, to be used for a lay-by parcels department. Additional office areas have also been made available on the second and third floors.

The new shopping area links up with Hay’s, Ltd.’s existing ground floor shopping space, and the new frontage has increased the firm’s shop' front access on three sides of the block to a total of about 250 ft of frontage.