New Bank Near Full Height

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31232, 2 December 1966, Page 1

New Bank Near Full Height

The final pour of concrete will be made on top of the 142 ft Bin Reserve Bank building in Hereford street in the week before Christmas. Reinforcing rods already mark the highest point 130 ft above pavement level.

The Reserve Bank offices will be ready for occupation early next year, well before the change to decimal currency on July 10.

The third to seventh floors in the eight-storey building have been let to the Government Accommodation Board. At present, it is planned that the Health, Electricity, Treasury and Audit Departments will move into the building about the middle of next year The vaults at the foot of the building have been completed and the two 12-ton

doors, with complicated combination locks, are in place. The bank offices will be on the west side of the ground and first floors, with a freight lift from the basement to the offices. A feature of the building is the extensive use made of local materials. The shell is reinforced concrete, as opposed to structural steel and concrete, so that imported steel has been cut to a minimum. The steps to the main entrance will be Timaru bluestone. Local aggregate has been used in the panels on the exposed pre-cast concrete beams, and Coromandel and Bluff granite and Takaka marble in decorative motifs. The foyer is 27ft wide and 14ft high, with a ceiling featuring exposed beams. 6in by lOin, of meranti, a Malayan timber. Acoustic tiles will be placed between the beams. There is a mezzanine floor

on the east side of the foyer on the ground floor. The walls of the foyer are in marble cladding. A lobby at the rear of the foyer contains four lifts, three of them going from the basement to the top floor and fourth to the main roof. A system built into the lift mechanism means that a button on each floor will summon the lift nearest that floor.

The lifts, staircase, services, including heating, electricity, telephones, fire fighting, toilets and kitchens are all within the core of the building, strengthened to resist earthquakes and protected against fire. At the rear on the ground floor is a PABX telephone exchange, and air-conditioning room (for the ground and first floors), a diesel-fired boiler for heating the whole building, an M.E.D. sub-station and a garage The basement, ground and first floors occupy the whole of the site. The building goes up in a tower from the second floor, this portion being set back 15ft on all sides to ensure the best light factor. The services are duplicated on each floor, including toilets, washrooms and kitchens, so that each floor can be let as whole. The entire building is planned on a 4ft lin grid, so that the floors can be partitioned into different areas and offices if required.

A wing on each side of the windows reduces glare and is

the starting point for partitions which can be moved at will. The service ducts, from the core, are carried above a lower ceiling over the main corridor on each floor.

The caretaker’s flat is toward the rear of the main roof. A concrete roof screen will be built along the roof fronting Hereford street. A sun lounge, with glass roof, will be built back from the Hereford street frontage. Concrete steps lead to the viewing deck, 12ft above the main roof. The lift machinery room is 16ft higher, with access by spiral staircase.