MODERN BANK BUILDING

Hokitika Guardian, 8 March 1930, Page 2

MODERN BANK BUILDING

FEATURES OF NEW LLOYDS OFFICES.

ARTIFICIAL SUNLIGHT

LONDON, January 30.

Lloyds Bank headquarters, which are nearing completion in Cornhill, are to be the latest word in up-to-date equipment. An artificially sunlit basement, where ledger clerks will work in summer radiance; a telewriter system, by which messages will be automatically reprodueed in fascimile in another part of the building; central heating by the use of oil fuel; and seventeen strongroom doors, each weighing fifteen tons, which can be moved by a touch, are features of the new building.

The room to be flooded with artificial sunlight during working hours i an experimental room under pavement level, and adjoining one of the strong rooms. A series of wall panels, covered by special glass panes, are illuminated to give the impression of a summer morning’s light. Here the ledger clerks will be connected with the officials on the eight upper floors of the building by the telewriter system. A director on the sixth floor or a cashier in the central marble hall can casually scribble an enquiry on an innocent-looking nad o. his desk, and immediate reproduction of the message is secured in the sunlit basement, The reply written in the basement is similarly reproduced on the pad of the enquirer. HEATING APPARATUS.

Unlike most city buildings the new premises contain no fire-places, no radiators, and no fire-fighting sprinkling apparatus. Trie fireproof building is padded with a non-combustible species of coarse prairie grass. Special precautions have been taken fy’om basement to roof to insulate every room against sound and cold.

The heated air will he drawn by suction ' from the roof of the building, and, after cleansing in a basement chamber, will re-ascend to form a constant current of even temperature. The modern stoker will merely turn oil fuel tans to feed the boilers.

Most of the strong-room doors, which are wrought of a special steel manufactured by a secret process, are three feet thick. They are suspended so delicately that workmen passing along the narrow corridors are able to more them with comparative ease. The strongrooms, which occupy portions of two 'basement floors, have no windows, but are well ventilated, and kept at an even temperature. Four years have lapsed since demolition was commenced on the site, and the occupation of the premises by the Bank in July of this year.