£700,000 Contract For Govt. Life Building

Press, Volume C, Issue 29509, 10 May 1961, Page 14

£700,000 Contract For Govt. Life Building

A contract for the construction of a nine-storeyed office building in Cathedral square for the Government Life Insurance Office was signed in Christchurch yesterday afternoon. Expected to cost about £700,000, the building will be built by C. S. Luney, Ltd., of Christchurch. The building is expected to be ready for occupation by the end of March, 1964. Work on the site would begin within a month, Mr C. S. Luney said yesterday afternoon.

The site, in the north-west comer of Cathedral square, was occupied by the old Government Life Insurance Office, the Embassy Theatre, and a three-storeyed office building. The letting of the contract was announced by the Minister in charge of the Government Life Insurance Office (Mr Rae). Mr Luney signed for the builders, and Mr K. E. Chisholm, property officer for the Government Life Insurance head office, signed for his organisation. The building has been designed by Mr J. K. Collins, a Christchurch architect, and the consulting engineer is Mr I. L. Holmes. Heating, ventilating, and electrical services have been designed by Mr C. J. Maindonald and Mr R. J. Maindonald, and the quantity surveyors are Messrs Shiipston and Davies. The clerk of works is Mr A. R. Alexander. 122 ft High The building, rising to 122 ft, will have an observation roof and penthouse. In the penthouse will be a caretaker’s flat, fan rooms, tanks, and lift machinery. The basement, with a ramped entrance from the Square, will have parking for about 20 cars. A central block, enclosed by the main structural core Of the building, will contain an electrical sub-station, building engineer’s office, a maintenance workshop fuel tanks, and lifts. The ground floor will be set aside for shops and a restaurant. The main entrance to the offices in the building will be in the east wall, facing the Cathedral. The Government Life Office plans to have its own suite on the corner of the first floor. Much of the upper floor space will be occupied by Government departments. ' Two Glass Walls The walls facing the Square will be of glass, in aluminium framework. The aluminium frames have been designed to withstand considerable wind pressure, movement within themselves m varying temperatures, and earthquake movement. Glass in the south wall facing the Chief Post Office, will be slightly shaded to lessen glare. The main roofs of the building will be formed of reinforced concrete, covered with a breathing membrane. This will allow the escape of condensation drawn through the concrete from the interior of the building by the outside heat. This will be covered by layers of inert fibre-glass blankets and then J finished with a cement covering to prevent ultra-violet rays from - the sun disintegrating the fibre-glass membrane. ..The covering will be divided, to allow for expansion. Windows in the west and north walls, which will be solid, will automatic closing devices that will operate in the event of fire either inside the building or in adjoining buildings. Window cleaning outside

the building will be carried out from platforms, capable of operating at any level, slung from a gantry travelling on roof-top rads.

The building will have a welded steel frame skeleton. Steel for the frame will come from recently opened mills at Middlesbrough, England. A revolutionary new range of structural sections is being rolled. The heaviest column in the building will be made up of a single section weighing IJcwt a foot. These universal sections, wider and heavier than anything that has been rolled before, will be used for all the columns and all the main framing beams. There will be a great deal of electric welding in the construction, and advantage will be taken of recent rapid advances in welding technique locally to reduce the weight and complication of connexions. Check on Welding Control of welding quality will be done by careful checking arrangement, including the use of radioactive isotopes to produce X-ray pictures of the major joints. Deep boreholes have in recent months investigated the ground on the site. Sand and shingle come right to the surface, uninterrupted by clay or silts. The building will rest on heavy foundation pads at its basement level, 14ft below pavement level. A lift overrun pit will go 24ft below the surface of Cathedral square. The designers of the structure consider it to be economical in materials and relatively quick to erect. It is also particularly suited to its load-bearing and earthquakeresistant function. Heating in the building will be by radiant ceiling and wall convectors from oil-fired boilers on the roof. Fans will help to circulate, the heat in cold weather and cool air in warm weather. There will be no air-conditioning in the building, but fumes from the basement car park will be mechanically extracted.

Four lifts, each carrying 13 persons, will serve the building. Flood-lighting Graduated flood-lighting will light the outside of the building at night, and will make the building visible for miles. The name “Government Life” in individual luminiscent fluorescent letters will glow from the top of the building during the day and will be lighted from within at night On top of the building will be a glass-enclosed landing running round four sides. Mr Collins said that in considering the building local bodies had been faced with certain problems they had never had to consider before. In many cases policy was affected, and both the Christchurch City Council and the Christchurch Drainage Board had to revise policy to facilitate preparations for the building, he said.