Library work soon

Press, 3 February 1982, Page 6

Library work soon

Workmen will begin converting the old public library into office suites on Monday. Paynter and Hamilton Property Developments, the firm restoring the building, estimates that the work will be completed by the end of the year. The total project will cost more than $1 million, including the purchase price. Paynter and Hamilton bought the property from the Christchurch City Council for $425,000 last May. Mr Richmond Paynter, the joint managing director of Paynter and Hamilton Property Developments, said yesterday that the buildings needed a considerable

amount of structural and engineering work to conform to safety and earthquake codes.

“It is worth restoring because places in the building just cannot be reproduced,” he said. “They are too grand and would be too expensive to build these days." The project was an exciting one, he said, because the library would respond well to restoration.

The plan is to “sharpen the whole thing up” by cleaning the brickwork, installing brass fittings and a canopy from the main entrance to the footpath, and landscaping the grounds. The interior design has

been done by Mr D. E._ Donnithorne, who is closely" involved with the Historic Places Trust.

Mr M. Hutcheson, the director of Paynter and Hamilton Property Developments, said that the effect after restoration would be “ritzy, but not in the nasty sense.”

The converted buildings will house five office suites, with some sub-tenants. Most of the space has been let already, generally to professional or commercial concerns.

There will be a bank on the ground floor, but plans to include a restaurant have been scrapped