The Grand Hotel, Wellington.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 9, 2 July 1906, Page 232

The Grand Hotel, Wellington.

The new Grand hotel in Willis street, "Wellington, now advancing rapidly towards completion, is one of the tallest buildings in New Zealand, and apart from its height will rank with the finest hotels in Australasia/ From the broad parapet that forms a substantial wall to the winder - garden roof of the Grand to the pavement is a drop of noft., while the ornate centre-piece that adds the finishing touch to the sky-line of the structure reaches another five feet. It seems only a short time since passers-by gazed on that ramshackle wooden structure known as the Western (and at one time the Commercial) hotel, on the same site. Now there stands a magnificent fire-proof structure boasting seven floors, without counting the basement and the winter garden, which is really a floorroof. , , The staircase (which winds up and up tnrougn a well in the centre of the building) or the electric elevator, according to the disposition of the visitor, will be gained from Willis street by passing through

what will be a spacious and handsomely furnished lounge. It is claimed that this staircase— the usual force blast in a big building during the progress of a fire— is absolutely fire proof. At present the stairs are there in the rough, but there is no sign of timber anywhere— they are just steps of

solid breeze concrete, supported by heavy steel joists and runners of 561b railway iron. The staircase ends away above the city, seven .stones up, in a large glass bouse, or conservatory, which invites the full play of the sun's rays irom all quarters, and inside which the atmosphere occasionally is eight or ten degrees warmer than below m the shady street. It is understood that this unique apartment will be utilised as a winter tea room or sitting-room From the winter-garden roof a magnificent panorama of the city and harbour is presented, extending on every hand to the hills

that encompass the place. So delusive is the elevation that the water of the harbour seems close at hand, and looking down into Willis street the people and the trams seem comparatively S Tn - " finishing off" the interior the army of tradesmen employed have started at the top and are working down. At present two or three of the top stories are almost completed. The walls are plastered throughout, but, save where pillars and panels and corners aie of Keens cement, they are to be papered in artistic tints There are 155 rooms altogether in the new hotel and without exception, all are comfortably sized, and well lighted, while some really splendid suites will be available. The sanitary arrangements are unequalled in any hotel in the colonies. Each floor has its own tiled-floor bath rooms for both sexes, containing creat enamel baths, embellished with heavily plated fittings, which include apparatus for supplying the bather with a douche, shower, or hose-rose bath, and in some cases needle baths are also provided The lavatories have been installed on the same lavish scale throughout, and everything used in this connection is of the highest quality and up-to-date in its style. The dining-room is on the first floor. It is an airy apartment, designed like a cross of St. John, large enough to seat one hundred and seventy people at one time. The ceiling, heavily festooned and scalloped in Carrara plaster, is a thing of beauty -indeed, the ceilings of all the -larger rooms are adorned elaborately in Carrara. So that there may not be a suspicion of the smell of cooking thekitchen is on the fourth floor. At : present J resembles an engineer's workshop, but that will

give way within the next week or two to all that is smartest and best in culinary appliances. There are several large sitting-rooms looking out on to Willis street on each of the floors, the finest being on the first floor, with French doors leading out on to a broad concrete balcony constructed on the most stable lines. On the same floor in the front is a children's dining-room, a writing-room, and a spacious smoke-room, destined to be one of the most comfortable places in the palatial hostelry. The Grand hotel— a product of the times and a domestic symbol of the progress of the city— has a frontage of 76ft. to Willis street by a depth of 1 ooft. Its impressive facade is heavily ornamental,

the dormer balconettes in particular being an architectural feature to admire. The bar apartments are not ready for inspection, though the great private bar, admission to which is gained by a special hall entrance on the southern end of the Willis street frontage, is now open. The front bar is to be fitted with a patent revolving door, similar to those now being installed in big hotels in America and England, which will cost Architect, J. ODea ; contractor, Allan McGuire.