NEW CONCERT CHAMBER.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18216, 29 October 1924, Page 8

NEW CONCERT CHAMBER.

erection of building. START TO BE MADE EARLY NEXT YEAR. There is a strong probability that the work of erecting the Municipal Concert Chamber will be put in hand early in the New Year. Instructions have been received by the City Surveyor (Mr C. R. A. Dawe) to put in hand the preparation of the working plans of the building. It is estimated that these will take two or three months to prepare, and that everything should be in readiness for actual building operations to start in February or March next. The proposal to raise a loan of £35,000 to re-build, re-model, and enlarge the premises formerly comprised in the Alexandra Hall and its adjuncts, adioining the new Municipal Offices in Manchester street, for the purposes of a Municipal Concert Chamber, was agreed to by the ratepayers on April 26th, 1923. Plans of the Concert Chamber were prepared by Mr H. F. Willis, Assistant City Surveyor, aud copies were forward'ed to the Department of Acoustics, Riverbank Laboratories, Illinois, U.S.A., and to Mr H. E. White, consulting engineer and architect, Sydney, for a report on the acoustic properties. The Professor of Acoustics, Riverbank Laboratories, in hi a report, congratulated the City Council's architect (Mr Willis) upon having prepared an almost ideal plan from the standpoint of acoustics. Mr White reported that the auditorium had been designed along lines which, with a few modifications, should provide excellent hearing in every part of the house. The recommendations mado by Mr White regarding the construction of the building will be considered when the final plans are under preparation.