Second stage of civic centre plan

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33049, 17 October 1972, Page 18

Second stage of civic centre plan

Messrs Warren and Mahoney, the architects for the Town Hall, were engaged by the City Council to prepare plans for the second stage of the civic centre project, involving an administra* tion building, parking building, and a new Canterbury Public Library.

The council agreed to set up a steering committee which will prepare the architect’s brief.

The steering committee consists of the Mayor (Mr N. G. Pickering), the chairman of the finance committee (Cr D. R. Dowell), Cr H. G. Hay, chairman of the Town Hall Committee, Cr R. M. Facfarlane, chairman of the works committee, the Town Clerk (Mr M. B. Hayes), City Treasurer (Mr L. A. G. Rich), City Engineer (Mr P. G. Scoular), general manager of the Municipal Electricity Department (Mr P. J. Shelley), the deputy-town clerk (Mr J. H. Gray) and the architects’ nominees. When the provision of office accommodation at the civic centre for the Municipal Electricity Department is being discussed, a representative of W. D. Scott and Company, the consultants engaged to report on economies in the department, will be co-opted; and when the siting of the library is discussed the City Librarian (Mr J. E. D, Stringleman) will be co-opted. The need for parking in the area was vital, Cr Hay said. Nothing could be done overnight because land had to be acquired and Victoria Street closed. Millions of dollars would be involved, and it could be that the committee should look at the possibility of having a building erected on lease with a right of purchase. ‘SPECIFIC MENTION’ On the siting of the library, Cr Hay said that if the library was to be on the Town Hall site it should be given specific mention instead of just an inference that the library would be there instead of on the Civic Theatre site in Manchester Street, which was the idea of the council previously. He was not opposed to the library being in Hie Town Hall area, Cr Hay said, but the actual siting was important. It seemed that there should be negotiations with the Salvation Army over the Citadel, because a library should be in the forefront of any devel-

opment and not round the side or back. Cr Hay said a library was a metropolitan project and there should be discussions with the local bodies which had contributed to the Town Hall. TRAFFIC STREAM “It would have been disastrous if the Town Hall was left standing on its own” Cr H. L. Garrett said. She agreed that the civic administration building should be there; but the library should be where the main stream of traffic occurred. Librarians throughout the world decided that the best site for a library was in the heart of the downtown retail shopping and business area, Cr Garrett said. The library could double its usage if it was in the heart of the city. Parking was not the first essential. She proposed that outside expert opinion should be sought on the siting of the library. Cr P. J. Skellerup said he favoured the reference library being retained on the site of the present library with the lending library being closer to the city’s centre. “There is no doubt that the administration building should be on the civic centre site," the Mayor said. “I have

changed my mind, just as other councillors have, and I think that is a good fi ng because it shows we are taking a lively and continuing interest in everything that is taking place.” WORKING CONDITIONS He was opposed to Cr Gar, rett’s proposal because Mr Stringleman had been overseas and reported on the siting. There were poor working conditions for many of the council’s employees at present, Mr Pickering said, and it could well be that the administration building should take precedence. Surely the architects must know if the library was to be on the site, Cr M. R. Carter said. Otherwise they could not begin to design one, two or three buildings. It would be two years for working drawings to be completed and then probably another two years to build the administration building, Cr Dowell said. In the case of the library the council might be looking eight years ahead. “This is moving into the future,” Cr Dowell said. “It would be a retrograde step not to move forward with the administration building, the library and parking for all the facilities.”