A MARK OF PROGRESS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13298, 29 May 1907, Page 6

A MARK OF PROGRESS.

FROM STOCK-YARD TO ELECTRIC LIFT.

The commercial enterprise of Mr W. Hay, the architectural skill of Mr Mullions, and the workmanship of Messrs Hunt and Werry are co-operating to make a notable addition to the business premises of Timaru, by the erection of a three-storey building at the corner of Stafford and Strathallan streets. The site chosen has never yet been built upon, but it was early applied to useful ends; Not so long ago, the post's still remained which had belonged to the stock-yard wherein teamsters of the early days yoked up their bullocks, and now almost prehistoric auctineers sold milch cows and fat steers. More recently it has been reserved for better purposes by .emporary occupation as a coal yard, the owner not begrudging the payment of high rales upon- it, because the otherwise unearned increment was growing rapidly with .the progress of the; town. Messrs Hunt and Werry are now putting down the foundations and have already a heap of bricks on the site, for the building they are to erect for Mr W. Hay, according to designs furnished by Mr -Mullions. When complete the building will present an imposing front to the wide street intersection, and a graceful r>ne, as the facade will be curved instead of angled. The length of frontage will be 115 feet. and will be a segment of a Jrek*, filling 60 degrees. The three stories, with parapet and pediments, will run up -to a central height of 50 feet. The style of architecture is a composite one, suitable to the material to be used, —brick walls, with concete bressuniers and lintels and cemented exterior. As the building is designed for offices, the large plate-glass windows that mark shop fronts are wanting, and the lower storey depends for a. good appearance chiefly upon its doorways, - of which there are five. The central doorway will be bounded by broken pillars surmounted by a handsome pediment., The >ther four, symmetrically placed—(the whole liuildiny. by the way, is entirely bilaterally symmetrical)—arc- of courss raaller. but in keeping with the central one. The secoud storey is given character by many arched and mullioned three-light windows, five of them slightly projecting bays, the arches decorated with large keytones. The top storey windows are single 'ights. with the key-stones of the arches reduced to one. At each end of the row however are wide flat arched window's, that promise to look well in the facade.' Above all rises a parapet with a, few simple material projections, gabled pediments at each end and a higher arched one in the centre. A fea'.uu-. i;f

the whole front is the division of the second :ind third stories by plain piers i ulining through the tiro, and flnishfd with corinthian caps. The lower floor is 14 feet high, the two upper ones each 12 feet,. Internally the walls will be finished in pulp-plaster, with decorations in fibrous plaster, £2OO being allocated for these decorations. The total amount of the contract is between five and six thousand pounds. The central entrance on the ground floor gives into a. lobby 10 feet ■wide, and this into a hall 14 feet wide, whence a stairway rises to the upperstories and at one side is the entrance to an electric lift. On either side.are suites of offices, at the back are sanitary conveniences. There are on this floor five suites of offices, opening off the lobby and the street, and all of them are already let. At the second storey the stairway and lift give access to a corridor parallel ■with the front and 10 feet wide, t>ff which numerous offices are laid out and some of them are taken, a set of five rooms being bespoke by a dentist. The subdivision of the top floor has not been finally decided on; but it is probable that some, of it will be fitted for a tea-room (to which the electric lift would doubtless be an attraction), and the rest may be sought for as club rooms. One of the tenants on the lower floor will be the Government Insurance Department; another .the A. and P. Association. The latter have secured a secretary's - and clerk's office, off the central lobby, 21 committee room behind, 32 feet long bj an average of 17 feet._ From its position, with a wide space ol street in front, its curved facade, its height and its design, Mr Hays building will make a notable addition to the street architecture of Timaru, and mark a step in the commercial progress of the town.