Beehive Plan Ready Soon

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30740, 3 May 1965, Page 3

Beehive Plan Ready Soon

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 2. The Government Architect (Mr F. G. F. Sheppard) said tonight detailed sketch plans for the proposed beehive addition to Parliament Buildings would be ready soon.

The plans would be complete for presentation at the next meeting of the ministerial committee studying the project on May 19 he said.

The designer of Coventry Cathedral, Sir Basil Spence, last year suggested the beehive design to replace the old wooden part of Parliament buildings. The design has been one of the most controversial ever to be suggested in New Zealand in recent years. Mr Sheppard said tonight he was certainly recommending the beehive to the Government.

“I've done so right from the beginning,” he said. “I agree entirely with Sir Basil’s idea. “The modern circular form he suggested a year ago has been developed over the last 12 months. The plans I will submit to the committee will be fundamentally Sir Basil’s plan but will incorporate a lot of new features because it has been studied in greater detail.

“The plans studied before this by the committee have been only outline plans,” Mr Sheppard said. Since Sir Basil Spence’s suggestion the Ministry of Works has conducted tests on soil and strata of the land on which the beehive could be built

Mr Sheppard recently spent some time in London conferring with Sir Basil Spence on the design of the proposed building of which he has been appointed architect.