ALBANY STREET SCHOOL

Evening Star, Issue 21633, 31 January 1934, Page 9

ALBANY STREET SCHOOL

THE NEW BUILDING READY FOR IMMEDIATE USE The Love Construction Company is now about to hand over to the Otago Education Board the building that is to replace the old school building in Albany street. Architectural impressiveness was not aimed at in the design, but the pupils who will assemble in the new building this year, also the teachers, will find it embodying all the essentials of _ a school building on the very latest principles, ensuring ventilation without draughts, a maximum of sunshine free from glare, the most modern system of heating bv means of which the temperature is automatically sustained and regulated, perfect shelter from boisterous winds from any quarter, and lavatory arrangements that are a part of the school, therefore proof agamst uncleanliness. The cost of the new school is somewhere in the region of £9,000, of which about £8,250 is earned by the contracting company—fully earned, as will be acknowledged by all who enter, for the whole structure is an epitome of efficiency and comeliness. The entrance is from Horbour terrace to a spacious court with a drinking fountain in the centre. That frontage is not self-sheltered. Being to the north-west, it does not require shelter. On the three other sides the buildings protect the court from high winds. The doorways from the court to the school are so placed as to afford a lee in any wind. This court is not the playground. Space for the children to play on is_ found in what at present is a field adjoining the school, bounded by the Leith canal and the Anzac highway. Just now this field is merely a natural paddock. In a very short time it will be a great playground. As a first step towards such an amelioration a garden is being prepared on the Albany street frontage, this being the work of an unemployed gang that is doing the job thoroughly. There are twelve classrooms and two special rooms, these two so constructed as to be thrown into one for lecturing purposes. The ceilings are 12ft high, and weatherboarding is used for the outer walls and plaster boarding for the interior walls, the latter finished with figured red pine and dadoes. The whole appearance inside is bright and cheerful, and the equipment is of the latest, including blinds that are drawn up instead of clown, window fixing so contrived as to cast the in-current of air over the children’s heads, ample conveniences for drying overcoats, etc. The Love Construction Company has not only completed the job in advance of time'. It has put into the construction the very best of material and thought. That, at any rate, is the impression left on the reporter who made the visit this morning.