BUILDER’S ART

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 840, 7 December 1929, Page 15

BUILDER’S ART

Auckland’s New Station Will Be a Show Place INTERESTING FEATURES By the end of May the contractors will be ready to hand Auckland’s new railway station over to the Railway Department. Soon after that it is expected that all passenger and goods trains will be using the Westfield deviation, via the waterfront. Progress on the building of the new station has been so rapid that the building is almost complete now except for finishing the interior decoration and some small parts of brick and stone work.

As soon as the steel frames arrive from England tho windows will be put into place. This work is at present being held up because the frames have not arrived.

The changes which have taken place in the last month are nothing short of marvellous. Except for ‘putting the windows in place, and some finishing work, tho spacious concourse, which resembles a huge exhibition building, is complete. One of the most interesting features of this concourse are the tiles representing the history of transport throughout the ages. These were specially designed and manufactured in Scotland and are most attractive in colour and workmanship. The tiles range from a lumbering bullock wagon to bicyles, the Rocket, motorcars and the most modern trains of today. The huge kitchen is a work of art in cream and light blue tiles, and the ceiling of the general waiting room is done with the most beautifully grained rimu it was possible to find in New Zealand. Today workmen are engaged in erecting the steelwork to carry the verandah over the main entrance to the station. This will he the largest verandah in Auckland and would make a landing place for an airplane. All the stone work for the building has been finished* except that facing the front on the ground level, which is below the main entrance. The main hall, for which 80,000 special bricks have been made, is rapidly hearing completion. The ceiling will be a masterpiece of the plasterer’s art with its design of roses. Tucked away in the walls of the main entrance will be several slot telephone boxes. These are using up space in the wide front wall, which would otherwise be useless.

In the lavatories Stourbridge bricks, which are glazed on both sides, have been used. These are the finest procurable in England. All the ramps and platforms have been finished with the exception of one platform, near where the stonemasons are working.

Every door in the building swings on ball-bearing hinges and hundreds of pounds worth of bronze will be used for sheathing the doors and the counters. Every ounce of concrete has been tested at the University. If it fails to comply with the test of 2,500 to 3,0001 b pressure to the square inch, it is removed and other concrete put in its place. The terracotta, which is being used for outside facings on the building, is an excellent job, and will add to the attractive appearance of the station when it is finished. One of the greatest qualities of terracotta is that a shower of rain will keep it clean of the smuts and grime which must float up from the station yards below. Outside the building splendid progress is being made. This morning the outer wall of the right-hand ramp leading from Beach Road to the station entrance was finished. Only the filling has to be done before the ramp is ready to join on to Beach Road. Thb road leading from The Strand to arrival platforms is nearly finished, as is also the raised permanent way for the rails to the north, which will join the present main line at the bridge over The Strand. A flagpole, 84 feet high, recently arrived from America. It will stand immediately in front of the station in the middle of the open space which is to be laid out in drives and flowerbeds. Although the station is nearly completed the foundation-stone has never been laid. This ceremony was to have taken place last September, but the illness of the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, prevented his attendance. A space has been left at the entrance, between the two main doors, for th« stono, The first pile of the station building was driven on August 14, 1928, and the last on December 1 of that year. When finished the building will have taken a year and nine months to complete.