Building Notes

Progress, Volume XII, Issue 3, 1 November 1916, Page 793

Building Notes

AUCKLAND.

The proposed new building for the Y.W.C.A. has now progressed another stage, the tender of Mr. G. Garner for £15,532 having been accepted last month out of 13 sent in. The designs, as reported in our October issue, come from the offices of that very live firm Messrs. Hoggard & Prouse and W. H. Glimmer, A.E.1.8.A. and the building is to be erected next to Myers Park, overlooking the city. The ground slopes sharply at the back, so that there will he a three-storey frontage to Queen Street, and five storeys at the rear. The structure will be of steel and ferro-concrete, while the front elevation will be most striking in appearance. A sweeping flight of stone steps leads up to the portico at the main entrance in the middle of the building, this being supported by two imposing lonic pillars, and extending as high as the second storey. A wide terrace, with a pergola roof, runs the entire length of the Queen Street frontage on the second storey, while a flat roof will permit of a full size tennis court on the top of the building. A strikingly-designed lounge lobby opens out from the main entrance, several large open fireplaces giving a very comfortable and cosy appearance. A lecture null, with a seating capacity for 250, is to be built on the main floor, with a separate entrance on the lower ground floor level. A roomy gymnasium, 64ft. by 36ft., and a games room occupy space on the basement level, and special attention has been paid to the requirements of the junior department of the association. Class-rooms, rest-rooms, locker-rooms, and

offices have all been provided, and when the building is finished, it will rank as one of the very best of its kind in this part of the world, being not only most attractive in appearance, but also built with a view to the growing needs and special requirements of the association. The Auckland Hospital and Charitable Aid Board at its meeting last month decided not to proceed with the erection of the new cottage hospital at Warkworth in view of the existing war conditions. . A new building is required at Newmarket school to accommodate the additional scholars. At a recent Council meeting it was decided that a letter be sent to the Education Board asking if there was any reasonable prospect, of a new school being erected in the near future on the site which had been proposed. It was moved that the town clerk be instructed to write to the board inquiring if Dr. Anderson, Director of Education, had inspected the school as promised, and what the board proposed to do in regard to the erection of a new school at Newmarket. Mr. D. Jack's tender of £2255 was accepted during the month for the auxiliary premises of the Girls' Grammar School which it is hoped to complete by February. A serious fire occurred at Tangowahine near Dargaville by which a sawmill owned by Messrs. Gibbons Ltd. was destroyed. Damage is estimated at £SOOO. Two million feet of sawn timber had a narrow escape from destruction owing to the direction of the wind. CHRISTCHURCH. The directors of the Canterbury Aviation Company have secured a site for their Flying School adjoining Plumpton Park. The area is nearly as large as that of the Hendon Aerodrome. Lieut. J. W. H. Scotland (the New Zealand aviator who recently returned from Mesopotamia) spent some days in inspecting the various sites offered, and considered the one selected very suitable for the purpose. The flying ground will be very convenient of access, being under six miles from Christchurch, and accessible by tram or rail, and should prove attractive to visitors.