TOWN IMPROVEMENTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13435, 6 November 1907, Page 7

TOWN IMPROVEMENTS.

ANOTHER RTRt'.vlNvr BUILDiXG. New York makes boa& of the possession of a queer flatiron building, u skyscraper of triangular ground plan in an a cute-angled street corner, sucli as there are many of in Dunedin. Timaru is to have a flat-iron building too, but its three stories will not make a skyscraper of Mr Robt. II av, the recent purchaser of the plot of land at the sharp-angled southern corner of Stafford and Beswick street, is having ths old-one-story buildings thereon demolished i?2ih a view of erecting a three-storied building of shops | and otticts, plans for which have been prepared, bv Mr T l . Coult-hard-Mullions. Before describing these a word may. be said regarding the buildings which are now being rased. Mr R. Morgan, who occupied the square stone structure as a butcher s shop. for 34£ years, told a "Herald" reporter yesterday all about them. They were built- in «1869, to replace structures that were destroyed iby Timaru's "great fire" of December 7th, 1868, when 42 business places and dwellings were blown out to sea in the form of hot gases and smoke, by a fierce nor'wester. The fire started; on the opposite side of the street, where Mr Preiser's shop « now, and swept that side of the street as far as Ballantyne's; crossed the street opposite where it started, and also south of George street, and destroyed several buildings on that- side. The late Mr Arthur Perry, solicitor, had an office where <Mr James Hay is now located, and that went, with its neighbours. Mr Morgan was a baker in. those days, and his shop was the last southward to be burned, " and not a penny of insurance on it—my usual luck," lie remarked. A tailor named Heaver had the corner shop •at Beswiclc-- street, and he, v the small by Mr Ronald'soi). saddler.; The stone building has always been a butchers' shop. It was built after; the fire by Stiibbs and King for that purpose. Mr Morgan went into it 34£ years ago as retailer for Mr E. " Acton, of Pleasant Point, who rsed to slaughter at home and have the meat carted in, until the railway was opened,and the meat was then railed in. The shop was / substantially built of Timaru bluestone. The wooden buildings on either side of it were small, but they were of totara and black pine and the . timber appears to be in good condition. .A few pieces of white pine weTe used, and the borer liad. been at work in these. Aniontr the conversation heard about the spot yesterday, was a statement that a very few years ago the owner sought in vain- to get £4OO for the property; and ths present owner had to give thousands for it! .

To return to the plans for the new building, Mr Mullions appears to have made very good us© of liis opportunity for showing how to -utilise a site of exta'emely awkward sha.pe, the narrow angle being less troublesome than the irregular base of the triangle. -Perhaps it is a pity that the 'proprietor did not make the building a l'our-storey one while he was about it ; but on this commanding site, a three-storev building will have a fuie appearance. * The architect is departing widely from the conventional. The two street frontages will each consist of a' giill of ferro-concrete, filled with windows —-a vast window of windows —as? xhucli glass as possible is being used in the exterior, so that if fully lit up within and blinds drawn, the building will make a great show at night. -The frontages therefore should have a bright and pleasing appearance by day. The style is modern, with no forced ornamentation, consisting of slightly ornamented piers, and horizontal bare framing the large windows. surmounted by' a heavy cornice and "broken" pediment. The upper row. of windows will be segment-arched, and this feature is skilfully carried down andtapered off in semicircular mouldings in the horizontal bar beneath the windows. There will be four shops on Stafford street as many shops or offices on Beswick street and a ninth at; the corner. Near the middle of each frontage will be an en- j trance to a central hall, the one on Stafford street being 10ft. wide, with handsome double doors above half a dozen steps. From the hall a stairway and an electric lift will afford a choice of means of reaching the upper floors. The shops are of different sizes, the two larger each 24-i x 12 with a • back room 19 x 12. The latter are to. be lit by a "light well," glass-roofed and ventilated by glass louvres. The ■second floor is divided into 12 offices, from 13£ x 14 to 26- ?, 12, with corridors paralleel to each street? converging in a, hall over the lower one, with stair and lift beside it. The uppermost floor is to be divided into five large rooms, subaivisable at pleasure. The corner room should be a specially desirable one from its wide double outlook. The material of the frontages, will as above stated, be windows in a ferro-concrete framing, 5 1 inch rods running up each pier and 8 of them along each horizontal band, the two sets tied together where they intersect, the base of the triangle will be of brick. Thei interior walls will be of brick within the lower storey, in the others of lath and plaster with fibrous plaster decorations. The walls and corridors will be dadoed, and all doors decoratively panelled. The sanitary arrangements _ on eacl* floor are to be up-to-date (as tney have to be nowadays), and the proprietor is having both gas pipes and electric wires installed, so that each tenant can use the light he prefers, putting in, as usual, his own fittings. It will be seen

from the foregoing description, that. Mr Robert Hay is going to erect a striking looking building, that- will provide."accommodation for. a good many people in business. Tenders for the erection of the building are to be sorifc in by the 16th insr. - HUB HIIH WIWIBIWIhiInIITn^