NEW MOUNT COOK

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 104, 4 May 1936, Page 10

NEW MOUNT COOK

jGALLERY AND MUSEUM

lAYING OUT OF GROUNDS

[ROADS AND TERRACES

Wellington's Mount Cook has changed considerably since it was the site of a prison, and it will be changed even more in the near future. ;Now that the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum building is completed work has been commenced on the area surrounding the building so that the handsome structure will have a fitting setting. Through an arrangement made by the board of trustees with the City Council the roading required will be done by the engineering department of the City Council and the planting of the grounds will be carried out by the reserves department. At the present time there is a large area of waste ground in front of the building with the National WaiMemorial Carillon in the centre. Two rough roads lead up to the top of the "mount," and these have been used during building operations by the contractors. The area has a very untidy appearance, far from in keeping with the importance of the tower and main building, and a comprehensive design has been prepared to change the barren, broken ground into dignified roadways and beautiful terraces. ROADWAYS COMMENCED. The work already commenced is on the proposed roadways to the Art Gallery and Museum building, and as these progress the ground between the drives and the carillon tower will be terraced ready for planting in flowers and shrubs. When the carillon tower ■was erected the steps leading up to it were set back from the original roadway in Buckle Street and the double drive to the terrace above will start from the portion that is set back in front of the fountain below the steps. STrom this point the roadways will curve outwards and up the slope, encircling the carillon to meet in a broad drive in front of the Art Gallery and Museum. The curving drives will be thirty feet wide, and the area they are to enter in front of the building will | be sixty feet wide. I As the driveways swing out from the carillon up the slope, areas of sloping hillside will be left on each side of the tower, and these are to be terraced for planting. There will also be areas for shrubs and flowers on the top of the hill in front of the building, and it is possible that provision will be made there for the statues of Captain Cook and Edward Gibbon Wakefield as suggested by a citizen who has taken a great interest in the establishtnent of the buildings there. I REMOVAL OF COTTAGE. i To provide room for the roadway en the left of the tower an old cottage near the Mount Cook Police Station is being removed, and when it is cleared away the carillon and the main buildings behind will stand out alone above the city. A certain amount of work will have to be undertaken on the grounds at the sides and behind the main building, but that part will not present any difficulties as it is comparatively level. When the whole is completed the only spot that will have the bare and broken appearance that characterises the area at present will be the high bank that drops away from the building towards Taranaki Street. As this bank does not belong to the site of the buildings the trustees are unable to plant it, but it is probable that creeping plants will be placed along the top of the bank so that they can trail down and hide the upper portion Which will otherwise stand out in marked contrast to the planted area Sibove.