GOVERNMENT LIFE BLOCK

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 300, 15 September 1936, Page 8

GOVERNMENT LIFE BLOCK

First of Interior Walls “Poured”

Yesterday afternoon saw the first of the interior concrete walls of the new Government Life Insurance block “poured.” That is an indication of the excellent progress now being made With the big job. The main steelwork of the structure has reached the fourth story; but on the top of that there are still four more stories to come before this, one of the largest 'buildings in Wellington, will be completed. The ground work is pretty well completed. A great cellar has been excavated centrally for the heating plant, but so far it has not yet been decided whether coke or oil furnaces will be used as the heating medium. The whole of the ground floor of reinforced concrete has been completed. At present the spacious interior resembles a forest of rusty iron, tier above tier, in severe rectangular formation ; indeed the multiplicity of girders and ties, viewed from below, obscures the sky.

With such strength in construction, the new premises of the Government Life Insurance Department are likely to be as immune from earthquake damagv as any in New Zealand. One of the great flats in this building has already been secured by the General Post Office.