AMERICAN TOUR

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 86, 8 October 1930, Page 12

AMERICAN TOUR

ARCHITECT'S IMPRESSIONS

HOMES AND APARTMENT

HOUSES

ill1. W. Fielding, architect, returned to Wellington yesterday after touring thu United States and Canada. While in Canada Mr. Fielding was skip of the bowling team sent by the New Zealand Bowling Association to the British-Em-pire Games.

In. his double journey across the North American . Continent Mr. Fielding had many opportunities of studying and marvelling at the remarkable progress of modern building design and construction,. especially in tho cities. He spent ten days in Vancouver, a week at Jaspar National' Park, three weeks in Hamilton and Toronto, a few days in Chicago, and about a fortnight in Los Angeles and Southern California.

"I was particularly struck with the great strides made in the planning and arrangement of hotels and apartmenthouses," said Mr. Fielding to-day. "The latter type of building has been carried to a high standard of perfection, and many of the huge 'flats' (as we call them) are.nothing short of palatial, and not to be distinguished, externally, from the immense hotels. One of the finest hotels I stayed at was in Toronto—the Royal York—and it has the distinction of being the largest ill the British Empire. I also stayed at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago. This is the largest in the world, but is not so luxurious as inanv others.

"Perhaps the most amazing thing about the American cities .is their rapid growth. .Long Beach, for instance, has grown in twenty years from a village to a city of 117,000 people, and Los Angeles, which, in 1900, was a place of no account, now carries a population far exceeding that of the whole of New Zealand.

"Some of the tallest and most imposing buildings are apartment-houses, containing anything up to a hundred suites, each replete with garage accommodation, solarium, frigidaires, radios, and every Conceivable modern convenience and equipment. The solarium usually covers in a good portion of tho roof space, and the windows are glazed with Vita glass to obtain the full benefit of the sun's rays.' The solarium has its own kitchen, and is much in demand for card parties and private functions. Improvements in the arrangement of and equipment for wall beds were noticeable, to say nothing of many patent contraptions for kitchens and bathrooms. -No longer is woodwork desirable in bathrooms where enamelled fireclay in many colours and enamelled metal fitments are all the rage. Floor and walls are of tiles and cupboard shelves of glass. „

"The study of the latest designs for modern homes in Canada and the States afforded me much interest, especially as regards tho uses of materials such as cut stone, plaster work of varied colours and textures, and roofing materials, of winch shingles, strange to say, arc in most demand."