NEW P. AND T. BLOCK

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 47, 11 March 1937, Page 13

NEW P. AND T. BLOCK

Le§se oi Wellington Redaimed Land nve-storey building Land xeclaimed by the Wellington Harbour Board in 1914 and nnoccupied since then has just been leased in perpetuity to the Post and Telegraph Department. A reiniorced concrete building, five stories in height, is to be prected over the whole of this block, the plans of which are being prepared by Mr. Edmnnd Anseombe, Wellington. It will probably be early in June before tenders can be called, and the building will tafee a year to erect. Two of the branches to be iocated in the new block will be the local en» gineer's and, the accountants' branch of the General Post Offlee. The block of land faces Herd street between the State Coal * jDepot and Chaffers street, and has extensive frontages to both gtrpets — ^217 feet to Herd street and 176 feet to Ghaffers street (which still leavea a 40-foot reserve betwepn the back line and the gea wall, The property has been acquired for an immediate building project. Oonsequent upon the grpwth of the Post 0ffice activities, the department has had to lease .premises in various parts of the city, even though another storey was added to the General Ppst Office last year. The whole of oue of the floors of the new Government Life I»surance block has been bespoken for the Post and Telegraph Department, and still that is not enough. Eurther office and workshop accommodation has to be provided, and this is being done at Herd strc'ot. As tha futura holds % prospect for the transformation of the cofporation yards (opposite the site) to a pleasant reserve of eome kind, the faeade of thq new block will not be as severe as might otherwise have been the case, and the design will have some artistie sympathy with its- anticipated surroundingg. As the back of the building faces the north and the harbour, there shonld be an amplitude of light and air for all timo.