STATE FIRE OFFICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1937, Page 10

STATE FIRE OFFICE

LAND ACQUIRED

PROVISION FOR FUTURE

Considerable additions are to be made to office accommodation in the State Fire building at once, and further extension is considered to be necessary in the future. The Department has .accordingly acquired two properties adjoining its present building site. One is the block of land on Lambton Quay, on the northern side, which has been held by the Ancient Order of Foresters since the days of the first city reclamations, and the other block is a property owned for many years by Mr. A. S.Ballinger, of Ballinger Bros., running from the rear of the State Fire building to Maginnity Street to which it has a frontage of about 14 feet. It is upon this block that the first additions will be built, and consequently the appearance of the building from Lambton Quay will not be changed. The Lambton Quay property may not be built upon for some years.

The present building plans are for ja four-storeyed concrete structure of modern earthquake resisting design, in which will be housed part of the State Fire staff on the ground, floor and the New Zealand Mortgage Corporation offices on the other three floors. In addition to these departmental offices, the present building also houses the Lands and Survey and Land and Deeds Departments. Recently the Wellington office of the State Advances Department was removed from the building to temporary premises on Wellington Terrace on account of the demand for more space by the head office staffs of the several Departments in the State Fire building.

A new feature will be the provision of an underground garage for officers' cars, to be approached from Maginnity Street. Such garages have been talked off for long enough in Wellington, but this will be the first to be provided on any big scale.

Plans have been prepared .for the work by Messrs. Gummer, Ford, and Partners, of Auckland, and though they are for four storeys only in the meantime, the design is such as to provide for the addition of two storeys, to the full height of the main building.

When the full State Fire building scheme is carried out and the Government offices block between Maginnity Street and Stout Street is erected the greater part of the whole block will be occupied by Government Departments, and a long step will be made towards a concentration of offices in one part of the city in place of their being scattered between Lambton and Courtenay Place and the waterfront and Wellington Terrace, stowed upstairs and downstairs in a dozen types of buildings and makeshift quarters.