BOUND ABOUT DUNEDIN

Evening Star, Issue 19760, 10 January 1928, Page 2

BOUND ABOUT DUNEDIN

The fact that all through the construction of Barton’s Buildings, at the corner of Manse and Stafford streets, business in Messrs Barton and Trengrove’s shop below will >be continued is worthy of note. The contractors (Messrs Lawrence and Sons) commenced demolishing the old building last week. Jn the meantime most of the work will have to be done from Stafford street, where a workshop has been erected.

The new ‘ Otago Daily Times ’ premises. constituting a building of beauty both internally and externally, is practically finished as far as -the contract is concerned. All that remains to bo done before the place is occupied is the fitting of the machinery and the furnishing of the many large and airy rooms.

No fewer t'han 7,000 loads all told of clay and other substances have been carted away from the site of the new Empire Theatre. On an average about 15(3 loads is a day’s work, but as many as 250 have been recorded. Perhaps the most important preparatory part of this work is the erection of the nineteen big steel stanchions which in order to ensure the safety of the surrounding buildings (the Telephone Exchange, the Masonic Hall, and the Choral Hall) will be fitted in against the embankments. The actual floor of the theatre will be five feet six inches below the present ground level. The new Rio Grande restaurant in Princes street is going up very rapidly, a noticeable difference in the structure being evident since last Tuesday. The work is now approaching the roof. Altogether three storys will be constructed for the present, but possibly another may be added at a future date. However, the building will, if necessary, be able to carry five storys. The basement or dive and the ground floor will form the restaurant proper, which will be of an up-to-date nature, and the next Hoar will be used for offices. The main entrance will be of the two-door system, and when set off with particularly attractive windows should give a fine impression from the street. All the foundations of the new .Regent Theatre have been laid with the exception of a number of piles, which, for the sake of convenience, will be left until the roofing part of the job is completed. The construction ot the walls has progressed as far as the mezzanine foyer, and a continuation of the boxing reaches to the gallery at the Octagon end of the building, while at the stage end the walls are about haltway up. Great use is being made of the high concrete elevator which, by means of adjustable chutes, feeds the boxing in every direction. The new Town Hall is now assuming proportions of a very definite nature, and activities arc being directed at the flooring as well as at the steel and the stone work. The steel work on the western side of the main hall has been erected, and a section of the workers is now busy on the columns and girders which will form the backbone of the concert hall. One of the big girders alone weighs seven tons. A party of masons, with tho eastern side of the building ns tho scene of operations, is shaping Oamaru stone and getting it into position, and near tho centre of the whole construction a platform to carry a three-ton crane with a spread of 75ft is being erected. The bricklayers, too, are making good progress. Tho main entrance of the Public Trust Office is now well established, and some of the offices just inside are practically completed as regards their actual construction. The big girders arranged to do away with the necessity for columns in the central chamber are in their places, and marked progress has been made on the mezzanine floor. Roof level platforms have already been established, and a series of reinforced columns which will extend to the top floor are taking definite shape. All the steel sashing is fitted in as far as the main floor. A feature of the building, when completed, will be the Sydney red sand stone which will be used in the front wall, and upon which the masons arc now working. This will ho the only building in Dunedin to be finished off in this way.