The Wanganui Chronicle. “NULLA DIES SINE LINEA.” THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1924. CITY ARCHITECTURE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19008, 8 May 1924, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. “NULLA DIES SINE LINEA.” THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1924. CITY ARCHITECTURE

Throughout her fifteen hundred years of history London, the great metropolis of the Empire, has never ceased building and rebuilding. The demands incidental to the city’s growth and the preservation of the health of the swelling millions of inhabitants have made the process necessary. And, as befits the mother city of a great commonwealth, all reconstructions that have taken place have been marked by the evidence of laudable strivings after greater beauty. This worthy example has not been disregarded by the younger and smaller cities. The men and women who pioneered in these younger lands had, perforce, to be content with the crudest of architecture. Shelter, privacy and security were the essentials of their time; but the passing of the years has witnessed a striking improvement, especially in the growing cities and towns, so that today the depressingly utilitarian has ceased to be the dominant characteristic of civic architecture. In a young city such as Wanganui, for example, it is inevitable that some traces of the old style should still remain; but in all new building the tendency is towards a higher and more pleasing architectural standard. In common with all modern civic authorities, we have erected legal barriers to safeguard our borough against anything in the nature of architectural atrocities. But while our building by-laws and our building inspectors function more or less stringently, their powers relate mainly to sanitation and details incidental to health. Now that we are starting afresh with the status of a city something more far-reaching may be needed. Architecturally, London—the great example—is steadily setting her house in order. In the many rebuilding schemes now in progress she is insisting on a high standard of external beauty and symmetry. In such a mammoth city it is a formidable task, but the task is being accomplished. And what London is achieving the smallest and youngest city might well attempt. It has been said of some places much older and larger than Wanganui that their chief thoroughfares resemble an architectural job lot. Wanganui is not yet in a position to disclaim a like imputation,,

because some of the buildings that continue to occupy sites in our leading streets are reminiscent of the early days. Long since gone are those who built them, and were doubtless proud of them. These old-time erections embody the archaic building ideals that satisfied our fathers in the years that have passed, and the time has come when these ancient monuments of pioneering enterprise should also pass away and give place to more handsome structures. With us, as with other communities, development in architectural taste has been more marked in the domestic than in the commercial area. Forty years ago the utilitarian spirit was dominant in house building. It was the tenement era; the energetic Soulless contractor filled up many a city area with streets of houses each the exact replica of its hideous neighbour. Nothing broke the drab monotony. That form of structural horror was mainly due to the fact that in those days the worker rarely aspired to own his house. The builder erected them by the score, and rented them one by one. Each human being had to adjust his taste in a home to the builder’s notion of what was good for him. In later years the ambition not only to possess but to plan and build their homes has been strong among New Zealanders. The consequences have been far-reaching, and almost entirely pleasing. Already Wanganui has become possessed of several delightfully picturesque residential areas. A walk in these localities teems with interest and with pleasure to any citizen appreciative of architecture. The residences disclose a discriminating judgment in architectural art, a rising tide in the expression and appreciation of things beautiful. Wo must see to it that in this respect the city does not lag behind the suburb. If we are to be a progressive city we must aspire to something more than safety and sanitary efficiency in our city buildings. In this connection we heartily endorse the suggestion of a Melbourne writer, who, in discussing this subject, urged that it might well be an honourable obligation on each member of the architectural profession to make the city’s beauty his more especial care. And not by spasmodic lectures on some remote planned city, but by guiding and educating the men who w’ould build in our central streets as he has guided and educated the man who has built in the secluded suburb, and by refusing to make himself the instrument for giving architectural expression to any outrage on the city’s beauty.