DECISION TO BUY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 20, 23 July 1937, Page 10

DECISION TO BUY

EDUCATION BLOCK

APPLICATION TO LOANS BOARD

EXTENSION OF TOWN HALL

i The City Council has now taken i s further step, and, rather, confirmei i> its earlier decisions, towards the pur 1 chase of the Education Board build '• ings and land between the Town Hal and the Public Library, at the prici :- of £51,000, and the next step will bi ". to make application to the Loca 0 Government Loans Board for permission sion to raise the money by specia r order under the authority given by ; - special Act several years ago. c The purchase price was arrived a ' at a time when city land prices wen . high, and the council more than onci 1 has expressed a ready willingness t( i have the price agreement discussec again or to let things run on for ; 3 few more years, but the Educatior • Board had other views, pointing ou - that a bargain remains a bargain. S( '■, the transaction is to be carriec - through, provided always that th< 1 Local Government Loans Board give; r its approval. ■ The land was at one time city pro . perty, but was disposed of to th< 5 Education Board, and now is to b< 1 bought back, at a price several time: multiplied. I TART OF CIVIC CENTRE TLAN. 3 The purchase was decided upon tc . regain for the city the whole of the j land on the • triangle on which the i Town Hall stands, towards the estabt lisfcment of a civic centre, a plan foi 1 which was drawn and approved bj - the council in a general way in 1929 t The council did not discuss that plar - very fully at the time, and was nevei convinced that it was the last word ir - the arrangement. of civic buildings— .• additions to the Town Hall to cove] r the whole of the land within Mercer ■ Lower Cuba, and Wakefield Streets 0 housing all main Corporation offices ' the new library in the. angle of Wake - field Street and Jervois Quay, with £ 1 wide space in' front of it to Cuba Streel : (the Central Fire Station and city sub • station and leasehold properties to be l removed altogether), and some not de ■ finitely specified use being made. oi the Corporation land on the north side of Mercer Street. As a further preliminary to that scheme, the Eire Board was asked to ' vacate the present building, and after an expensive wrangle, was told by a commission of inquiry that it would '• have to go., 1929 PLAN ABANDONED. : A good deal has happened since then to make the 1929 scheme impossible of achievement. The library plans are changed and the new building will be erected on the Mercer-Ha,rris Street , site. The Tramway and Electricity Departments have since obtained their own building in Cuba Street, and though the Fire Brigade is to go to the new station in Clye Quay, it is very unlikely that the city electric power sub-station will be moved, for a long time, at any rate, from Jervois Quay, or that leasehold properties will be cleared from this block. However, though the 1929 lay-out of the whole area about the Town Hall cannot now be carried through, there are still great possibilities for effective development of the,, Town Hall triangle and the new library and the open space about it on the other side of Mercer Street; in fact, this was an alternative lay-out which was given a great, deal of support in 1929 and during the dispute between the council and the Fire Board over the Central Five Station property. , The civic centre plans proposed the building of additional storeys on the Town Hall as well as extension after the demolition of the Education Board building and the present library building, but the 1931 earthquake in Hawke's Bay discounted the assertions made that the hall could be increased in height, and even though a big expenditure has been made upon strengthening the "hall ■ and . the removal of the tower, parapets, and unnecessary ornamentation, still more work must be done if the full recommendations as to strengthening are to be carried out. Extensions to the west of the hall must be made before many years have passed. TOWN HALL OVERCROWDED. The office sections of the Town Hall are badly overcrowded, and officers are stowed away in unlikely corners and broom cupboards under the stairs. When an unusual press of work occurs, as for the issue of rate demands, eyen the kitchens are turned into offices. One officer works in a cellar and another in a hidey-hole behind the organ; there is not room for the departments now in the hall, without bringing under one roof other public offices. The engineer's building in Mercer Street is just one degree more overcrowded and unsatisfactory than the Town Hall. It is so badly served with exits and escapes in case of emergency that it fairly deserves condemnation out of hand. Councillors have no facilities foithe transaction of city business: only one small meeting-room is available, and there is no councillors' side room or room for interviews. There is not even a set of lockers in which they can keep city business papers. So councillors are well aware of Town Hall disabilities. Suggestions have been made that a public hall of a capacity between those of the main hall and the Concert Chamber would be a real asset and a profitable one, and the proposal may have a place in the extended building. Cloak-rooms, conveniences, and waiting-rooms are inadequate. The Town Hall is. in fact, thoroughly out of date. If the council had funds for the work extensions would be put in hand without any delay—not much doubt of that —but funds are not at present available. The old library building is in bad shape and the sooner it is pulled down the belter, for it pre-dates earthquake-resistant design by many years. The Education Board building is only a part of the property to be taken over under the £5.1,000 deal, for this covers also the old Technical^ School building, fronting Wakefield Street, and now occupied by the Manufacturers' Association and the Smith Family. These buildings, too. were erected when earthquake risks had been temporarily forgotten, and their design would not be repeated in any modern interior. If finance could be arranged Wellington might modernise the whole of the Town Hall block and mark at the same time, in both symbolic and utilitarian ways, the Centennial of Wellington City.