WELLINGTON WINTER SHOW.

Wairarapa Age, 14 July 1927, Page 7

WELLINGTON WINTER SHOW.

ITS NEW HOME. DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING. Mr. J. T. Watson, of the firm oi Watson, Gooder and Lee, architects to the Wellington Winter Show Association, stated yesterday that slow, but sure progress was being made with 1 the negotiations regarding the land ij 1 John Street, Wellington, on which the ' new Show buildings are to be erected. Legislative sanction, it is hoped, will be given this session to the Association to take over the land, and then debentures at 8 per cent, will be issued to provide the money for the erection of the building. Mr. Watson said it was confidently hoped that the 1928 winter show would be held in the new buildings. The following detailed description of the site and building should give a very fair impression of what this building will look like when completed, and the facilities and convenieces it will contain. The site selected for the new Winter Show building and recreation grounds is situated in John Street, and comprises in all something like eight acres. Anyone familiar with Wellington will realise that a more central site could not have been chosen. Apart from being centrally situated, the site must have other essential characteristics such as public transport accessibility, spacious crush areas, and abundant facilities for parking private ears. The safe handling of the huge crowds which frequent this Winter Exhibition has been carefully studied and finally overcome by forming two separate entrances into the main ves-. tibule, one for all visitors conveyed by motor, and the other for visitors on foot or walking from the trams and motor buses. The former will be discharged into the main entrance from ears passing immediately in front of the building and stopping under a covered way. This covered way, which is thirty feet wide, forms the entrance for pedestrians and is approached with an easy grade from the main street where the tram service runs. In this way there will be none of the dangers that arise by discharging visitors on to traffic roads. The building proper is rectangular in shape, having a width of three hundred feet by a depth of four hundred feet. The main floor covers the whole of this space and will be used for all exhibits except live stock. This section will be housed in the rear basement which has an area of twenty thousand square feet. The front basement will be used for caretaker’s quarters and offices and for the storage of show properties. The front of the building and side walls to a depth of fifty feet will be of reinforced concrete as will be all basements. The balance of the external walls will be constructed of timber sheathed with corrugated asbestos sheeting. The front of the building has a centre feature fifty feet square and provides four stores consisting of basement vestibule, ‘.main assembly vestibule, gallery and board room, and is terminated with four corner turrets and a main centre dome, the top of which will be about eighty feet above the pavement. At each .front corner of the building are towers fifty feet square rising twelve feet above the common roof level. A light exhibition style of design has been adopted to convey the character of the building. The concrete facade will be finished in white stucco turret roofs in red and the main dome sheathed in copper. Apart from its use as a home for Exhibition purposes, the whole of the building, or sections of it, will be in great demand for innumerable purposes. Some idea of the site of the building can be gained when it is realised that, on the main floor can be ‘■arranged eight double tennis courts and two full length bowling rinks each one hundred feet wide, so that, situated as it is in the centre of Wellington, its popularity as a sports building will make it not only a handsome revenue producing proposition, but also a great asset as a winter sports hall. A general description of the lay out is as follows: Upon entering the main assembly vestibule, access is obtained through eight turnstiles, which open into a hall with a clear floor space of three hundred feet by one hundred feet, running across the building. From this hall and at right angles immediately opposite the entrance is another hall one hundred feet wide and a length of two hundred and fifty feet, this hall is flanked on each side by •two halls each fifty feet wide and two hundred and fifty feet long. In addition to the above two courts each fifty feet square are situated at each corner, and between these and the main

vestibule are two courts each seventyfive feet by fifljy feet. By passing from

the main entrance across the large cross hall into the wide hall on the opposite side one conies to two flights of steps leading to a mezzanine floor ten feet above the main floor. This floor will be a very popular unit of the building, as it . contains the tearooms, with necessary service rooms, a small dance floor seventy-five feet square, dressing-rooms, orchestral stage and two observation balconies each seventy-five feet long and twelve feet wide. 'These observation balconies will be used for obtaining a general view of the exhibition, for sitting out spaces when not dancing, or as viewpoints for tennis games, being flanked with space suitable for that purpose. The whole of the divisions on the mezzanine floor with the exception of kitchen and dressing-rooms will be of balustrading and arch trellis work of light appearance. The building throughout will be provided with an abundance of mod ern service Tooms necessary to the comfort andzwell-being of the huge crowds of visitors that will frequent this hall to be used for exhibitions, for pleasure and for sport.

I In addition to the Exhibition Building, the Wellington Winter Show Association have a comprehensive lay out of the whole of the urea, which will provide a foeiball ground and quartermile banked track aeressible from the main Vogeltown Road, and a second football ground accessible from Hall Street. The balance of the area will be planted in shrnbs and when the whole of the scheme is materialised, it should be admitted that the piece of public ground in John Street could not be put to a better use or be a greater monument to the civic pride of the promoters of the scheme.