TOWN HALL ADDITION

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 268, 10 August 1945, Page 6

TOWN HALL ADDITION

Attractive Building Of Five Stories For tlie first substantial work on the creation of the civic area about the Town Hall, Wellington, a contract of approximately £35,000 has been made between the city council and A. Lemmon, Ltd. This was announced by the mayor, Mr. Appleton, yesterday. The contract is for the building of the foundations and the ground floor slab of the additions to the Town Hall, to cover most of the area from which the old education board building, the old Technical School, and the former Public Library are now being removed. A large open space will bo left at the western point of the triangle. The associate architects, Messrs. Page, Feurn and Haughton, ami Mr. I’. S. Allen, constructional engineer, had carried out well the council’s wish for a building in conformity with the new public library on the opposite side of Mercer .Street, said Mr. Appleton. That was evident from their sketch, which showed an attractive building of five stories, with some unusual features, but the sketch did not show the detail of facades, upon which the full effect of the design must depend. The contract, he mentioned, included the driving of 384 piles, most of them 20 to 24 feet long, and the laying of the heavily and intricately, reinforced floor flab on which the building would rise. That, part of the work would take perhaps IS months, and by then, it was hoped, the supply of materials and labour would make possible the continuation of construction. When the building was completed all the non-trading departments would he housed together in the one main office at the Mercer .Street end of the new building. “The set-hack at this end of the building is interesting.” said Mr. Appleton. “It will form a platform large enough to' fake a band if need be, from which gatherings of citizens in the new open space can be addressed "n public occasions. But all the bomb and the bear signs today are that it will be finished too late for the rejoicings at the end of the Pacific war. That, at any rate, is certainly my hope hslieL”