THE NEW STATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 139, 13 June 1936, Page 10

THE NEW STATION

COMING TO LIFE A BUSY INTERIOR FINAL PLASTERING It is intensely interesting, but very confusing, to bo privileged to wander through the new railway station for Wellington, now fast emerging from the stark scars left by the concrete boxing to a semblance of the comfortable port of call it will be for travellers. It is hard to realise that within less than a year, this huge aggregation of departmental offices, pierced by a magnificent public portico and a lofty hall off which radiate all the services and comforts the travelling public are entitled to, will become for many thousands of people the beginning and end of the business ■ day. To the railway "commuter" the train is almost like his front porch. It is there, probably more often than at his home, that he meets his suburbanite friends, and there that the day's events are discussed with delightful frankness. A FINE FRONTAGE. Now that the scaffolding is entirely off the front of the building, the general effect is excellent. The red brick facing, relieved by the plentiful windows and the terra cotta panelling, and surmounted by ths red tiled roof, has a warm and comfortable appearance. The height of the station is dwarfed by its breadth, and the huge pillared portico with arched top does not seem large until one is on the steps, and only then is it realised that the station is a very big one indeed. This is the public entrance, the front door, as it were. Officers will ascend to their suites by other entrances, and a large number of suburbanites will enter by the Featherston Street side entrance. The big hall in which one finds oneself on entry will be a very fine chamber, in effect, though not so large, something like the Maori Hall at the Dominion Museum. It has the same lofty roof, and the same brilliant top lighting. It is all very dirty just now, of course, with pools of water on the floor, and planks that squelch muddy streams over the legs of your friend's trousers, but in spite of the workmanlike mess there is even now the evidence of fine architectural effect. Looking out through the pillars, which are some five feet in diameter, quite a good deal of Wellington can be seen because of the lofty entrance. Passing on, one emerges on the concourse, a huge promenade giving access to the many platforms. A little while ago the concourse was more imposing, because the whole space between the big arches which will carry the glazed dome roof was empty, and the roof looked like a giant crinoline. Now there is a forest of scaffolding which hides the general effect completely. This has been put in to allow of the finishing and plastering of the walls and roof arches.

CAVERNS. OF NOISE. Though the front of the station has been practically finished, looking very well with its granite facings and rich cream parapets and pillars, one has ■ only to enter the departmental floors to realise that this part of the building is still a gloomy series of caverns of concrete inhabited by soughing, chilly winds that stir the piles of dust, and filled with nerve-racking noises. From outside there is hardly a sound of the activity within, but once inside there is a jarring, thudding rumble of a hundred men at work, scraping, chipping out concrete, drilling holes, and laying bricks. Surely so many bricks were never put.in a concrete building in the way of lining before. Everywhere the trowels ring, and everywhere one dodges piles of bricks. Here and there are holes in the floor in which one might easily twist an ankle. Of course the lifts are not working yet. and over the flimsy temporary banisters, as one trudges through the sand and dust which make each step a soft slope, one may look down the lift wells, and think what would happen to a hard-boiled egg if it were pushed over. Most of the glazing has been done, and windows that will be well polished when the departmental heads come to gaze through them in rare idle moments now bear the queer scrolls, dots, and circles that glaziers delight to put on the glass to show that there is not merely a hole in the wall there, though nobody but a baseball pitcher could get at most of the windows to break them. It is probably because there are so few windows unglazed that the wind in the corridors seems so keen. Formerly it was a playful Wellington wind; now it is a draught.

This building was once described as a' plumbers' paradise, but to the layman, with all the inner works exposed at present, it is more like a plumbers' nightmare. There is also a vast amount of electric wiring in progress, all of it conduited inside the walls, which have to be pierced very frequently. The amount of current that will be used in the station must be considerable. A saving in this direction is being made in the heating arrangements, a steam system with oil burners in the basement being used. While the building was just plain

concrete, one could get about it with ease, but now many apparently open avenues prove to be cul-de-sacs. This is the bricklayer again. If any nervous old lady has ever had a bad dream of being bricked up alive she should not visit the station just now. It might happen to her. The reason one is si> continually being confronted with new, damp brick walls is that one is going where the architect never intended anyone to go. There are ways round, or will be when the lifts are in, but without a plan of the building they are hard to find, and there seems a good deal of up and down work to be done to get anywhere. FINAL PLASTERING STARTED. It is when the upper floors are reached, especially on the western side, which will be the first to be occupied by the district office, that the effect of the plastering in its finished state is seen. The ceilings are of fibrous plaster, finished, at present, in pure white, with a neat sort of key pattern here and there. The walls will also be in white plaster, with a tile dado reaching some three feet up from the floor. If there is one thing in which the departmental offices excel it is, apart from roominess and lofty ceilings, giving adequate air space, the thorough lighting system. Much of some of the walls consists of windows, and it was quite warm in rooms with a western aspect getting even the half-hearted winter sunshine. From all the upper windows there are really surprising views of the Wellington skyline or harbour. No finer spot to watch the departure of the Monowai for Sydney yesterday afternoon could have been found. The railways staff will be wonderfully well housed when the building is ready for them, and as each department of affairs is grouped with relation to others to facilitate co-operation.- a great deal of trouble will be saved.