CIVIC CENTRE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 111, 6 November 1929, Page 12

CIVIC CENTRE

A BIG LAND DEAL

EDUCATION BOARD AREA

ACQUIBED BY COUNCIL

Tho City Council, at a special meeting yesterday afternoon, by unanimous vote, agreed to the proposal that the land and buildings at present occupied by the Wellington Education Board and the old Technical College buildings, fronting AVakefield street, should be acquired for the city at the price of £51,000.

. Negotiations for the purchase of these properties have been in hand for sonic years, but not much progress could bo made- until recently, as there wore wide differences in the valuations made by the city authorities and the Government. A few weeks ago it was announced that the difference had been reduei'd to £.4000, and yesterday that tho Minister of Education, the Hon. 11. Atmore, had consented to the property being offered to the council at A 51,000. The terms of the sale, which has to be approved by Parliament in a clause of the Washing-up Bill, provide that the Corporation shall pay to the board the sum of £.20,000 on completion of the sale, the remaining £31,000 to be paid in three equal annual payments, without interest.

The land has an area of 1 rood 7 perches, with a frontage to Mercer street of 110 feet and of 130 feet to Wakefield street. There are three buildings on it, the two storied brick building which houses the Education Board staff, facing Mercer street, a two-storied building which has accommodated the art classes of the Technical College and the Manufacturers' Association office,, facing Wakefield street, and an old out of date building which served as the' Technical Collego cookery classroom until the move was made to the new college on Mount Cook. PROPOSALS FOE DEVELOPMENT. When the sale is completed, the City Council will again be tlie owner (for the land was former!;, city property, and was sold to the education authorities between thirty and forty years ago), of the whole of the Town Hall and library block, bounded by Mercer, Wakefield, and Lower Cuba streets, the triangular block on the other side of Cuba street, bounded by Cuba and Wakefield streets, and Jervois quay, and the third, rectagular, block, opposite the library and Education' Board offices, bounded l>y Mercer, Cuba, Harris, and Victoria streets. Thus the way is now prepared for the carrying out, "pieeo by piece, according to plan, of a civic centre scheme, but there is still a long way to go before headway can be made. Finance will bo the great hurdle. Briefly, the civic centre is that: (1) The Town Hall building should be extended to cover the whole of the triangular block, at the apex of which the Public Library stands; (2) that the new library should be built in the angle between Wakefield street and Jervois quay, where the old tramway power house stands, the remainder of this triangle being cleared of buildings to give an open space opposite the Town Hall; and (3) that the corporation should retain the rectangular block between Mercer and Harris streets for leasing purposes, the revenue from this block going a fair way to meet the heavy capital charges upon the development of the other two blocks. CITY OFFICES AND LIBRARY, The suggested development of the Town Hall block is that a story or stories, should be added to tho Town Hall itself, and.that the new building extending right' down to the library corner, should be of such design ~as to harmonise.with the altered Town Hall Ihe scheme may be carried out in several sections, to meet increasing demands tor corporation staff accommodation until finally all council offices and'public counters are housed in a five or more storied building under one roof. When thei proposal was discussed by the council last year the general opinion wasjhat the first section to be undertaken would probably be an addition to the Town Hall on the land now vacant, between the hall and the Education Board building. Even that addition, however, is probably some time ahead. *■

Though nothing definite had been put forward, the most likely immediate development following the completion of the Education Board property purchase will be a partial remodelling of the interior of the building for the housing of council officers who are at present accommodated, at considerable rental cost, in privately-owned buildings, as in the Civic Chambers, and to permit an extension of the library. It has been proposed iv this latter regard that the reading-room might very well be transferred to the Education Board building, to make possible the rearrangement of the now almost hopelessly cramped reference, lending, and children's departments, and to allow of a brightening up .of the library generally pending the erection of a new building when the ratepayers say so—which does not appear likely for some years to come. | A COSTLY SCHEME. The new library and open space proposed has been held in the air for a good time now by the disagreement between the City Council and the.Fire Board regarding the transfer of the main fire station to the boating club, or another site, but at any rate, the negotiations have now reached a fairly concrete basis for bargaining, though the Fire Board is still, apparently, just as strongly opposed as ever to the idea of moving. The question may even yet have to be referred to arbitration. Apart from the cost of station rearrangement, the scheme will mean the scrapping and rebuilding of the main city electrical sub-station, and the loss of very substantial lease revenues from the shop and warehouse properties facing Cuba street. I'he whole scheme of a single city office block on one side of Cuba street, and a fine library building and a wide open space opposite, would make a vast improvement of this part of the city, but the cost will be great, though this will be offset to a substantial degree by the leasing of the land in the third block, between Mercer and Harris streets, a great part of which is now bringing iv no revenue.