THE STEEL-FRAME BUILDING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 974, 15 November 1910, Page 7

THE STEEL-FRAME BUILDING.

GAINING FAVOUR IN WELLINGTON. No one passing along Courtenay Place during the past week can fail to have noticed the complete outline in steel of a building. that is being erected at the foot of Taranaki Street, proper, and the ■ mode of construction of which crystallises in a glance,: 60 to speak, the type of building that will doubtless predominate in Wellington in the future Although not tho first of its kind to bo. erected in Wellington, its height and situation have, caused it to come under more general notice than tho three or four other buildings, which have been erected, on exactly the same principle in this city. Strangers to Wellington invariably remark on the preponderance , of modern buildings here, and marvel why it is that; the utilitarian brick has not played a more important part in the architectural make-up of the'city. They have had to bo reminded of tho preju-dice-a prejudice-With little foundationagainst brick created by tho big earthquakes of 1855, which has done more to retard building in Wellington during the past quarter of a'century than most people would credit. But tho generation of property-owners . who remember thoso earthquakes has passed away, and very gradually the brick building came to pass.; Then came the creation of the Ibrick. area, within which no wooden structure was to be erected, and this has been extended as time has gone on, and those desirous of rebuilding were forced to build'in # brick or not at all. During tho past ten or fifteen years steel has crept into'the construction of brick buildings,' chiefly in the form of girders, for [flooring, bridging the space between the brick _ walls, ' and ,thoso. architects who specified, them found them good. The great impulse in favour of the complete .steel-frame!,building, '..on the ! hitherto : rather, despised , ' American plan, came,after"toe big shake of 1905, when a good deal of the old prejudice against the brick (only) building'sprung up afresh. The big San Francisco earthquake .further imbued the' building world with a faith in the steel-frame, with; eacTi. etory bearing' tbe weight of its own. walls,, instead of the weight from base to pediment resting on. tno. eartlu Even then, the style' was not accepted in its entirety., Buildings—a few—were erected r round a. steel-frame, with the outside stanchions bnilt into , the brickwork, but still with tho whole weight of tho wall jesting on its own base undergrounds : '■■ ■ ■'.- . ~ Then, came those with the courage to give the American steel-frame building in its truest form a trial, and the result has been most satisfactory to all parties.. So far, however, there has been no real test.in New.Zealand of the superiority of these buildings, but the law of commoneenso proclaims that a Bteel-framo building,' completely interlocked in .every direc-! tion with stout girders of steel must have a deal more resilience than tho building of brick walls and wooden floors. , The American steel-frame building— with its stanchions and giTders of a-cal-culated strength to bear the walls, Toof, and the estimated weight of the goods to be carried on' each floors-is the assured method of ■ construction for the future. Before many weeks Wellington - will prob-. ablv see four buildings of tho kind being erected in tho heart of tho city at the same time. ,