STATE BUILDINGS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 93, 21 April 1941, Page 5

STATE BUILDINGS

STOUT ST. PROGRESS

HANDSOME STRUCTURES

WAR HOLDS UP SCHEMES

Steady progress is being made with the erection of the new State building in Stout Street, which is the major Government construction job in hand at the present time. There is, however, still a great deal to do before the building is finished, and for many months the men will be engaged in the arrangement and fitting of the interior. Military duties and the availability of more inside positions have affected the labour market for big building projects of this kind, with the result that it is not an easy matter to maintain as fast a rate of construction- progress as has been possible previously. The big steel frame has been "clothed" with concrete and facing stone and for some months construc--son las been at a phase that has made the building, together with the attractive addition of a similar height to the State Fire Insurance building next door, a source of.much interest to the public. - The stone work of the new State building up to the level of the first floor window-sills is Coromandel granite, and to protect it from oils and other, dirt while the building is being erected it has been given a 3 coating which will be washed off when there is no further risk of disfigurement. Above the first-floor window-sills the concrete is faced with Putaruru stone. Coromandel1-granite has also been vsed as the lacing stone up to the firstfloor windows, and over the main entrance to the second-floor windows on the adjoining State Fire extension. Above those levels the building is to be finished in coloured plaster with a •Sped" finish. Already the plaster work has been done on the two upper storeys. The window frames are in position, the roof is on, and all the concreting ( work has been completed. i There is still a great, deal of work to be done in the interior of the building, because of the sub-divisions required to house various offices, and in addition there is the glazing, and the rest of the plastering of the external walls. STATE FIRE EXTENSION. Although not of the size of the Gov-, ernment offices block, the extension next-door to the State Fire Insurance! building is, nevertheless, imposing. The facade of this addition has a striking appearance architecturally which has been heightened by the number of' windows and the "scraped" ' plaster I finish.' The scaffolding is practically all down and the glazing has been completed, except on the ground floor. Although these are the two main construction jobs now on hand, a start has been made with the new block of Government flats in Dixon Street, where the Housing Department has embarked upon Wellington's largest-flat-building project to date, much, larger than the Berhampore flats. ? ThenJsmd upon which-this construction job has been undertaken was purchased by the State from the estate of the late Sir George HunteY, and Ihe plans provide for 180 to 200 flats. The war has necessarily delayed the construction of other Governmenl jobs, though the authorities are planning to go ahead as soon as possible with new post offices at Te Aro and Wellington South and also to make provision for a nejw Government Printing Office. Abnormal conditions have caused a stoppage in the construction of -the new Broadcasting House, while other projected Government schemes will necessarily have to be delayed until after the war.