"A GREAT BUILDING"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 127, 25 November 1938, Page 16

"A GREAT BUILDING"

NEW GROUND BEING BROKEN

ECCLESIASTICAL EDIFICE IN CONCRETE

On his trip overseas this year, which he undertook to study latter-day trends in concrete architecture, particularly in regard to ecclesiastical work, Mr. Cecil W. .Wood, of Christchurch, the architect for the building, indicated that the design and plans for the Anglican Cathedral to be built in Wellington on the site at the corner of Hill Street and Molesworth, Street would require modification. The plans and design which he prepared before he left New Zealand were only tentative and were mainly to give the Wellington Diocesan Centenary Appeal Committee something to work oh. Since his return Mr. Wood, as a result of what he saw overseas and as a result of consultations Avith the committee, has amended the design and lay-out of the proposed building. The nave has been widened and me length shortened so as to bring the congregation, in accordance with-the modern trend, into more intimate relation with the choir and sanctuary. The tower, which previously was placed over the crossing, has been moved over to the Molesworth Street frontage of the building, and' has been made rather more ornate as have other parts of the exterior. * The new position of the tower has enabled the architect to dispense with large supporting columns, and this alteration, plus the widening of the nave, will permit of the whole congregation having an uninterrupted view of the choir and altar.

Over the interior of the Cathedral Mr. Wood says that he has no qualms at all, but he points out that new ground is being broken with the external treatment; he saw no concrete church abroad on the scale of the proposed Wellington Cathedral. Another point made by Mr. Wood is that he feels confident that when the precise treatment of the exterior is finalised a great ecclesiastical building will be shown, "built of the available materials of the country, keeping in mind the youth of the Dominion and those generations that will come after we are gone." The appeal for funds to build the Cathedral and to establish the Bishop's Fighting Fund was launched publicly in July of this year. It is hoped that the laying of the foundation-stone of the Cathedral will coincide with the celebration of New Zealand's Centennial in 1940.