DESIGNING THE FEDERAL CAPITAL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 21, 26 January 1911, Page 2

DESIGNING THE FEDERAL CAPITAL.

INFORMATION FOR COMPETITORS. The Federal Minister for Homo Affairs (Mr. King O'Malley), as the result of an interview with Mr. C Schivener, Director of Commonwealth Survey and Lands, over the proposed designs for the laying out of the Federal capital, expects that the necessary information and papers will be ready for distribution in three or four weeks. Bona fide competitors will then be supplied with the details which have been compiled in connection with the schemes for water tupply, sewerage, and other matters. Included will be a contour map drawn on a scale of 400 ft to one inch, and showing the levels of the surface at intervals of sft, together with a model, drawn to scale, of the city site. These plans and maps will be made available for intending competitors at the following centres : — Australian Home Affairs Department and the Public Works Office in each State; New Zealand Public Works Department, Wellington ; Canada, Public Works Office, Ottawa; South Africa, Publio Works Office, Capetown ; London, High Commissioner's office; and all British Embassies in Paris, Berlin, and Washington. As soon as the design for the city has been accepted architects all over the world will be invited to submit designs for the principal public buildings. The first competition will be limited entirely to the laying out of sites ■ and the loca« tio'i of public buildings, without any reference whatever to the buildings themselves. For instance, the planning of the city will include the position of Parliament House, the administrative offices of the Government, and public buildings of various kirtds; but will not deal in any way with the design of the (structure in each , particular case. In reply to the criticism on the smallness of the amount of the prize money — £3000, divided into three awards of £1750, £750, and £500— Mr. O'Malley points out that a sum has already been expended by the Government in preparing information for the benefit of competitors. It is expected that the maps und the printed information will place competitors all over the world on practically equal terms. To any experienced city planner the information supplied will, the Minister thinkr, give him just as good an idea of the details of the cite as if he had a personal knowledge of the area on which the city is to be built. Mr. Burnham, who was engaged to plan the new city of San Francisco after its destruction was, Mr. O'Malley has discovered, paid a fee of £10,000. He had, howover, to make his design fit in with a portion of the city which was. not destroyed, and had to* provide for a population of 4,000,000 people. The designs for the new Federal city contemplate a population ot about 20,000. At the same time the planner must draw up his design so that it will permit of indefinite extension without interfering in any way with the symmetry of the area. Replying to criticisms, Mr. O'Malloy remarked: — "I wish to point out that the task is very much easier than to prepare a plan for a partially-destroyed city, because here you have to deal with virgin territory over which the lecherous heel of the destroyer has not yet travelled. When this competition comes before American city planners they will have all the knowledge that they require, and they will have no difficulty in submitting designs. The location of the engineering works, water supply, and sewerage farm have been allotted by our officers, and the planners will 'have merely to submit their ideas of the direction of the streets and the position <>f the pub-lie buildings." (