BUILDING COMPLETED

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 63, 7 December 1938, Page 15

BUILDING COMPLETED

New Administration Block At Victoria College RELIEF FOR OVER-TAXED ACCOMMODATION The construction of the new administration'building at Victoria University College, Wellington, has now been completed and the transfer of the college offices from the main building begun. It is expected that it will be completed next week. The new building is of three stones. The ground floor will accommodate the college office, the first floor the principal's office and council meeting-room, and the top floor the custodian’s quarWork on the construction of the building was begun in September, 1937. It is in reinforced concrete with a red brick exterior finishing in keeping with the main building. The administration and council rooms have an interior finishing in Queensland maple. Work is progressing on the new college biology block, which will not be finished till next year. It was begun in February following the excavation of 14,000 yards of soil. The new building will be connected with the main building by a covered-in passage-way in concrete. The new building will provide accommodation for lecture-rooms and laboratories and the office an'd library of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and on the roof there will be a glass aquarium. The two buildings are being erected under a grant to the college council by the Government of approximately £50.000. . , The contractors for the administration and biology blocks are Christian! and Nielson (N.Z.) Ltd-; the joint architects Messrs. Francis H. Swan and W. Gray Young; the structural engineer Mr. P. Holgate, and the clerk of works Mr. E. McAneny.

These additions will provide muchnee'ded relief for the college, as its accommodation has been overtaxed for some time past. This year the attendance of students at Victoria College passed the 1000 mark for the first time in its history.