Telephone And Computer Centre

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31124, 29 July 1966, Page 14

Telephone And Computer Centre

The new telephone exchange of the University of Canterbury at Ham will come into operation on August 20 and the new computer centre in the same building will be finished early in September.

The attractive new building (above), near the middle of the university drive will thus become a £60,000 centre of both communication and research.

The telephone exchange on the ground floor will serve all departments already at Ham with two operators. There is

provision for four when all major departments have moved. This will be the biggest such exchange in Christchurch with provision for 1300 extensions. It has the latest equipment which has taken four months to instal. Apart from the operating panels, almost the whole ground floor is taken up with telephone switching gear. The computer centre upstairs has offices for a director, secretary, and two lecturers, a short-course lecture room, a post-graduate study room and a reading room. There is a main computer room, secondary computer room, large machine room, technician’s room and store.

The base of the building is faced in Tai Tapu stone and a white feature exterior wall to the foyers at both levels has inset panels of coloured glass. The architects are Messrs Hall and Mackenzie, and the contractors are the Fletcher Construction Company.