WOODEN SCHOOL

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 147, 18 March 1931, Page 8

WOODEN SCHOOL

New Te Aro Building MATTER OF POLICY So far as the Wellington Education Board is concerned wood has proved to be a very faithful and lasting building material in connection with the schools. One only has to look round—to the old girls’ school in Buckle Street, the Te Aro School in Upper Willis Street, the Newtown Schoolin Revans Street, and the Clyde Quay School in Clyde Quayr-to note what faithful service the majority of these structures have given over the past half-century. Only one of the large city schools during the last thirty years has been destroyed by fire. That was the Terrace School, which stood on the same site as the existing building. . The earthquake in Hawke’s Bay is not responsible for the decision of the Government to build the new Te Aro School on the old Terrace Gaol site, of wood. That was decided upon before the date of the shake, solely upon the grounds of economy and utility. We do not build of quarried stone for five hundred years as they have done in England dn the past, for the simple reason that ideas in school construction, ventilation, light, heating, etc., undergo radical changes. Therefore a policy of wooden schools may not be one to condemn, but rather praise, as while they do become a bit musty after half a century, they are during that period amenable to alteration, and are just as adequate shelter in all weathers as the stoutest stone or brick building. In design the new Te Aro School is absolutely modern. It will be a long building, with a frontage of 200 feet, housing six class-rooms, each 24 feet by 21 feet 6 inches in a line, all facing the north-east light, with unilateral lighting, and thorough ventilation. At the rear of the class-rooms there is an eight-foot corridor running the full length of the building, which will be kept airy by louvre ventilators. The new building will be divided in the centre by the administration offices, rooms for the headmaster and teachers, and cloakrooms. The facade is made presentable by a central pillared portico and pediment entrance, surmounted by a small ornamental tower, to break the roof line. 'The windows, which occupy the greater part of the' facade space, are on the Whitney principle, which practically enables the teachers to convert their class-rooms into open-air schools In an instant by pushing each sash full out.