NEW OFFICE BUILDING

Evening Star, Issue 21116, 31 May 1932, Page 2

NEW OFFICE BUILDING

CONSTRUCTION IN PROGRESS IN BOND STREET Work lias now commenced on tho erection of new premises in Bond and Crawford streets for tho Alliance Assurance Company Ltd. The building, which will be two stories in height, will contain on the ground floor the company’s own offices on tho Bond street frontage, and offices for letting purposse on the ground floor on the Crawford street frontage. These latter will be entered from the office vestibule, from which stairs will lead to the upper floor, which has also been designed for subdivision into offices for letting purposes. Portion of this floor on to Crawford street will he occupied by the Otago Employers’ Association. ® In tho company’s own offices the public space, in common with the entrance vestibule, will be finished out in cudgelgong marble to a height of 7ft 6in. Tho counter will also be faced with marble, with the top of selected Queensland maple, protected with plate-glass. The mam office should provide roomy, welllit quarters for the staff, being lit both from the street front and from a central light area. The walls of this portion will be finished in selected Queensland maple panelled dado with panelled plaster walls above and clas-sically-modelled fibrous plaster ceiling, Tho manager’s room on tho loft of tho public space will be finished out in a similar manner.

Ample independent cloak room and lavatory accommodation has been provided for each suite. Good strong rooms will be available for all offices. The Crawford street office on the ground floor will be fitted out in a similar maimer, the woodwork throughout this portion being Philippine mahogany. The offices on the upper floor will be finished in selected nmu. Tho floor coverings will he of the best quality rubber, worked out in special designs and colourings; and a serious attempt has been made to minimise the transmission of noise from one floor to the other by the use of false ceiling work and insulating material under the floor coverings. The construction throughout will be reinforced concrete specially designed to withstand earthquake shock.

The whole building will be heated from a central plant in the basement. The system will be an automatic elec-trically-controlled system, which will eliminate all manual labour or supervision. Tbe building has been designed so as to provide as much daylight and sunshine as possible to ail portions. The exterior elevations to both streets will be faced with glazed terracotta, and the street windows will be in solid bronze.

The elevations have been treated in a quiet, dignified manner, depending principally for effect on good proportions and the use of the best materials. These characteristics will, in fact, _be apparent throughout the whole building, which, when completed, should make a notable addition to the office buildings of the city. The architects are Messrs Mandero and Fraser and the builder Mr W. H. Naylor.