UNIVERSITY ‘TOWNSHIP’ BY 1974

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32554, 13 March 1971, Page 1

UNIVERSITY ‘TOWNSHIP’ BY 1974

In less than three years, a Ssm “township” catering for the daily needs of 9000 people will have been established by the University of Canterbury at Ham.

The massive task of transferring the fully developed university from its central site, representing a project unique in New Zealand, was begun more than 12 years ago. The last stage of the project will cost more than sBm, and will entail the completion of the 12-storey library-arts block and several smaller units also catering for the arts faculty. The library block will dominate the new campus of the university, and will be several feet higher than the ißank of New Zealand building in Cathedral Square. The progress on the new library block was significant,

said the Vice-Chancellor (Professor N. C. Phillips) this week. “This is because it implies a commitment to transfer the remainder of the university to Ham at the same time as the new library is opened,” he said. Several departments of the faculty of arts, and the faculties of commerce and law will be included in the central tower-block of the library building. If the rest of the buildings for the arts faculty were not ready for occupation by the beginning of 1974, the prospect for the operation of the university would be a “nightmare,” Professor Phillips said. “I hardly dare to contemplate the problems that would arise with one faculty split between two sites,” he said.

There will be six major buildings erected between the new library and Clyde Road over the next three years These will cater for English-

education, geographypsychology, history, modem languages, and two staff blocks.

“The development of these buildings must take precedence over anything else," Professor Phillips said. High on the list Of other priorities he said, were the extensions necessary for the Students’ Association building.

The present facilities, which would be used during the Commonwealth Games in 1974, were totally inadequate to cater for the larger student roll expected in three years, Professor Phillips said. Extensions would also be called for soon at the computer centre to accommodate new equipment, part of th? University of Canterbury’s share of a s3|m Government grant for such equipment. The use of such facilities at Canterbury was higher than in any other university. Allied to the development of new academic buildings at

the Ham site, Professor Phillips said, would be the erection of new halls of residence.

“Assuming that the student roll in 1972 will be 7400, even with the .addition of 464 student-places available in the new university and church halls we will still be able to provide for only 10.8 per cent (or 801 places) of the student roll,” Professor Phillips said. "But this is very much better than the 5 per cent we were able to provide for in 1970,” he said.

The University of Canterbury Council and the Students’ Association are strongly in favour of flat-type accommodation being provided at Ham. Such accommodation, they believe, would make fewer demands on public money than halls of residence.

“However, the University Grants Committee has not yet given any indication of its willingness to subsidise

such accommodation, and until such approval is forthcoming there is little likelihood that a pilot student flat scheme will eventuate at Ham.

The new registry for the university is also in the final stages of planning, and will cost more than slm. The original plan for this building, however, had had to be severely adapted to fall within the 50,000 sq. ft allocated by the Government brief. Professor Phillips said. As the university developed at Ham, a shopping area and large warehouse would also be built within the Ham site, he said. “By the time that the Commonwealth Games are held in Christchurch, the face of this part of Christchurch will be almost unrecognisable from that which exists today.” “All that is needed for us now is to maintain the impetus in building progress attained in the last two years,” Professor Phillips said.