NURSES’ HOME TO BE NEW TYPE OF BUILDING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18938, 7 December 1929, Page 9

NURSES’ HOME TO BE NEW TYPE OF BUILDING.

PROVISION TO BE MADE FOR EIGHT STOREYS.

Provision for a building that will ultiniately be eight stories in height is being made in the plans now being prepared of the new Nurses’ Home, which is I|o be erected for the North Canterbury Hospital Board, on part of the land in Hagley Park formerly in the possession of the Acclimatisation Society. The first instalment of the building is to consist of three stories and a basement. It will contain about a hundred bedrooms, in addition to administration rooms, sitting rooms, dining room, kitchen, etc. The land acquired by the board for the purposes of the home comprises an area of 1 acre, 2 roods, 31 perches. It has a frontage to Riccarton Avenue of 366 links and a depth of 520 links. The building, when enlarged to eight stories, will accommodate 350 nurses. The building, which is to be set back 33ft from the road, is to be erected according to the. most modern ideas in building construction. The frame will consist of arc-welded steel and the walls of reinforced concrete, this being the best type of structure to withstand the effects of earthquakes. There is no existing arc-welded steelframe building in Christchurch, although this class of construction has been adopted in Wellington and Auckland for some years past. The new Majestic Theatre is a steel-frame building. but. the steel is riveted and not arcwelded. For the new Regent Theatre in Cathedral Square the roof trusses will be arc-welded. The architects for the new Nurses’ Home are Messrs Collins and West, who, in addition to a number of other jobs which they have in hand, are architects for the large additions that are being made to the Dominion Farmers’ Institute Building in Wellington, which is an arc-welded steel frame and concrete structure.