Karitane Extension Contract Signed

Press, Volume C, Issue 29523, 26 May 1961, Page 2

Karitane Extension Contract Signed

A contract for John Calder, Ltd., to build extensions to the Lady King Karitane Hospital, Cashmere, for more than £50,000 was signed yesterday by the Plunket Society, and work began forthwith.

The building will provide a new and up-to-date hospital, enabling the old hospital to be converted into nurses’ accommodation. The main block of the new building will have the hospital proper on the first floor, with service, laundry heating, and other installations in the basement below. A smaller projecting block will have an area for toddlers and a matron's office on the main floor with a caretaker’s flat beneath. The existing familiar line of building, curving to the top of the drive, will be extended northward by the two new inter-connecting blocks. Use will be made of the rapidly-filling ground so that the new upper main floors will be level with those of the old building. The relationship of the old and new blocks has been carefully developed to give a pleasant architectural effect. In the angle between the two blocks there will be a two-storey foyer with a free-standing staircase. This will be the main entrance. Walls will be reinforced concrete with brick veneer and the roof will be timberframed and tiled. Roof pitches and proportions also will reneat those of the exu. * C e ’ es- --is

isting brick block. Eaves and gables have been detailed to emphasise the simple and precise forms of the new blocks.

The steel columns and balustrade of the projecting hospital deck will give a relieving pattern of vertical lines in contrast to the severe brick walls behind. Architects for the building are Messrs Warren and Mahoney, the structural engineer is Mr I. L. Holmes, and the heating engineer is Mr R. L. Lefebvre. The signing of the contract yesterday was the culmination of 14 years of fundraising and planning, said the president of the Christchurch branch of the Plunket Society (Mrs Arthur Rose) last evening. But £lO,OOO was still needed to complete the present project. A start on the job was possible only through the generosity of the Blenheim branch of the Plunket Society which made a substantial loan to provide the amount required for the £ for £ subsidy from the Government. Mrs Rose said that, at the moment, the toddlers' and matron's wing would be only a shell, but it was hoped to raise the remaining £lO,OOO during the construction of the new blocks so that everything could be complete. However, the main objective of a new Karitane hospital wing would be realised.