Progress With Town Hall

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31365, 10 May 1967, Page 20

Progress With Town Hall

The architects for the town hall were confident that their target date for completion of working drawings by mid-February would be met, the chairman of the town hall committee (Cr. H. G. Hay) said last evening.

He and Cr. O. C. Mitchell (Waimairi County Council), with the City Engineer (Mr P. G. Scoular) and the City architect (Mr A. K. Allison), acting as a sub-committee, had spent the evening with the architects, Messrs Warren and Mahoney, examining progress.

At this stage when the project was in the hands of professional people, the public could be forgiven for thinking that there was not much progress, but this was far from the case, Cr. Hay said. The sub-committee had been encouraged by the progress shown by the architects. More than 12 members of the staffs of the architects, the consulting engineer and the services consultant were exclusively engaged on town hall work, he said, and the number would increase as the project developed. After working drawings were completed they would

be in the hands of the quantity surveyors for about five months, and it was expected that tenders could be called in July of next year, to close in September in the hope that a contract would be let in October. In the meantime the town hall committee would have to examine carefully the total financial implications, and it would be necessary to apply to the Local Authorities’ Loans Board for sanction to a loan, and also to seek approval of the building programmer for the work.

Some of the plans had been submitted to the acoustics consultants in London for their approval of modifications made as a result of Mr F. M. Warren’s overseas visit.

Within a few weeks there would be tangible signs of progress, Cr. Hay said, for the site would be pegged.