COLOSSAL COLUMNS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 69, 1 October 1928, Page 8

COLOSSAL COLUMNS

NEW SAVINGS BANK IN SYDNEY (From "Tho Post'j" Roprmntatlvt.) SYDNEY, 20th September. ' Before long the State Savings Bank will be shifting into its palatial now quarters, facing Castlereagh and Elizabeth streets. ■ ■ . . Sydney is so used nowadays to seeing skyscrapers shooting up in all directions that it views with a certain amount of nonchalance the'giant and magnificent Savings Bank, although that great structure still attracts the passing gaze of a few "rubberneck" visitors for the most part. The majestic columns of the new bank are the striking feature of it. It is because of their immense proportions, to the lay/ eye, that these columns "are perhaps unique. To the critical architectural eye, however, they have a special appeal. :With a girth of 24 feet, and a length of more than 70 feet, these massive, noble shafts bear witness to the art of the ancientGreeks. Had these columns been solid, their weight would have been approximately .. 200 tons each. The fact that they are hollow has permitted of a number of small strongrooms1 being' built within the massive shafts on different floors. In,this respect, they do not differ from other old-world monumentaU columns, with their interior winding staircases, for example. The colnmns of the Savings Bank are only of slightly*, smaller length than the Antonine column .in Borne. Nobody seems to know exactly what the Savings Bank is.going to cost. It will be a huge sum, whatever it is.