A PALATIAL HOTEL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2468, 22 May 1915, Page 14

A PALATIAL HOTEL

MEW STANDARD FOR N.Z. •< CLUB HOTEL PLANNED ON AMERICAN LINES SOME OF THE MAIN FEATURES There are hotels in New Zealand which cater in the smallest possible measure for anyone outside the casual drinker, beyond whose needs the proprietor does not worry his head. There are other hotels which make reasonable provision for the travelling public, but which are erected with small regard for the enormous advance in hotel construction and arrangement made in other parts of the world. This charge cannot be levelled against the new Club Hotel, to be erected on the site of the old one (on the corner of Lambton Quay and Johnston Street), with the addition of a confined wing, which will extend to the rear of the premises occupied by Messrs. E. Johnston and Co., and A. L. Wilson to Waring Taylor Street. This hotel, a tender for tho erection of which was let yesterday by Mr. Henry J. White, architect, to Messrs. M'Lean and Gray, is to set a. new standard altogether in hotel-building m iNew Zealand. The lessee, Mr. Joseph Dwyer, stipulated that the hotel must bo up-to-date in every respect, and the architect has left little if anything to be desired. Even in the elevations to Lambton Quay and Johnston Street a new note in architectural idea in this part of the world has been struck. Mr. White has adapted tho old Spanish mission style to the requirements of a modern hotel, and the result is quite uniquo and picturesque. This style tends rather to the elimination of detail from the facado, yet there is that which attracts the eye and pleases the sense of proportion. Both will present a plain surface of fins stucco of a creamy-white tint, pierced with plain, almost square, unadorned windows. Relief is provided in convex sections of the facade on tho comer and at both ends of the building, which terminate slightly above the lsvel of the parapet m low-set square towor3. Between the towers on. both elevations is a striking feature in the form of a massive metal cornice, which is to protrude 6ft. from the building. This cornice will be roofed with Roman metal tilaß .{sloping down to a copper gutter), which will lend that touch of the antique that is always so effective. The roofing of the towers will be invisible. Further relief is provided in the suspended awninj over the main entrance on Lambton Quay, and the iron fire-escapes are brought down in steps from either end to the awning In a manner that makes ornamental that which is usually provided as a commonplace utility. To a height of 4ft. from the ground the facades will be faced with brown-glazed tiles. A very good idea of the dimensions of the block may be gathered from the fact that the frontage to the Quay will be 98ft. and to Johnston ' Street 87ft., whilst the northern wing will have a frontage to Waring Taylor Street of 25ft., and will be divided from the new Police Station by a passage and a light well. Tho chief entranco to the hotel will be from Lambton Quay. This will be 20ft. in width, flauked by polished columns of Coromandei grauito. Passing through massive swing-doors, admission is gained to a large vestibule with « marble and tiled floor, with the "mission" style of interior decoration in evidence in the high wainscoting of silver birch, and the mock-beam and rough-cast ceiling. From the vestibule nscends the main stairway and an electric "push-button" automatic elevator, leading to all floors overhead. Off the vestibule is the registering office, the manager's office, a telephone room, and a porter's lockor, nil arranged with an eye to tho greatest convenience. To the left opens the dining-room, a very large apartment (3ift. 54ft.), which is also designed in the mission style, aud which should make a very handsome apartment. A feature here will be the lighting. Tho new principle of indirect or reflected light has been decided on, which is something quite new to Wellington. No electric bulbs will be visible. They will be contained in a handsome metal fitting pendant from the ceiling, which throws the light up to tho ceiling, from whence it sprays out evenly in all directions, creating a soft diffused light, which casts no shadows and makes no glare. Off the dining:-room opens a commodious lounge, with a pat, lead-light ceiling, admitting the daylight from a central light-well. This apartment will be ornamented with a ' mission" open fireplace, aud above the wainscoting a rack for plaquss and palms. Behind thn lounge is a winter garden, with a glass Toof stand for palms, and a Spanish _ pergola for climbers with a fountain in the centre— a coo! retreat for midsummer days aud evenings. At the rear of the diuing-roorti is a modern scullery and kitAhen, shut ofF from the rest of the hotel, save at meal times, with a steel roller shutter. The servery has its "bainmaric" a trough of 'hot water) 'and hot press, where the dishes aro kept under covers {that workeasily up and down on the counterweight principle), so as to be always hot. There will be special copper troughs for the wash-ui>, with hot and cold water laid on and draining racks in plenty. An island stove will occupy the centre of the kitchen, and off this apartment will. ■be a cool room for pastry-cooking, a baker's oven, a steam chest, a gi'iller. and a. butchery. The whole of the culinary department will be fly-proof and specially venlilated. The main corner of the ground floor is occupied by a large, oval bar. at. tho rear of which will be a commodious commercial room, with ei«ht desks. • Another bar, with tiled walls and a. handsome entrance, will front Waring Taylor Street, and in that wing overhead the stall' will be accommodated as never a hotel staff was accommodated before. Plenty of lavatory accommodation for guests and the public is also provided on tho ground floor. , j It is in the living quarters upstairs where travellers will experience a touch of that luxury which is afforded in America. Capacious single and double rooms, inside "and outside positions, aud. suites of rooms, with an independent bathroom, dressing-TOom, and sitting-room attached, are being provided. Not only will there be electric lisht swilches at th} door, biiit one at the head of tho bed—a great convenience to those who read in bed or in cose of any but there will he plugs in each room for an electric radiator, an nasily-adjusted hot-water radiator (no fireplaces are urovided in the bedrooms), and a porcelain hand-basin, with hot and cold water fititings. And the hot water will be always hot, as the system of heating will _be a circulating one. Moreover, there will bo an internal telephoue svstem, an elec-tric-bell svstem, and exchange telephones on each flat. A very snecial feature will be the solid (2J-inehj nlaster and metal lnlths partitions. These aro absolutely sound-proof and vermin proof, and at the same time a space economiser. Tho floors, too. represent a form of construction new to New Zealand. These will be of solid WY>d sis inches in thickness Ou top of tho expanded metal and plaster ceilins Oregon pine joiMl's aro to be naclcd close together. ami on let" ">f this solid foundation Ihr tonrue and groove flooring is laid. This kind of flooring is practically firenrool', and such is the belief in thij system that American insurance comnnnics eive preferential rates to buildings being thus fitted. Tt is mauiiMned that the use of this solid flooring and solid walls throughout the building will rat, mouse, and vermin-woof. The n»w Club Hotel will be lighted brilliantly bv electric lights thronjrkout. the new half-watts lamps will be used to illuminate ifhe entrance, vestibule, dininsrroom. aiul loungo. and outside the cornice will be picked out in electric lightg. Jn everv room there will be an electric nlng for tho vacuum cleaner, so that every inch of space may be frequently, rapidly, nnd thoroughly cleaned. Automatic electric f'l-e-Ronfrs will be Etlted on every flat. When once the alarm is released, it sets every oLhrr ?ong chins, and they cannot be slopped until the one interfered with ie reset. The contract price for the buildin? is ,£10.700. but in addition to that Ihe liotwaler radia 1 -'*!' pri and the tiHn>; (practically tho wliolr of the ground flnnr i- tiled) arc sennrnle contracts. The biiildirsr is to bo completed eleven months , from data.