THE MELBOURNE EXHIBITION BUILDING.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5583, 19 February 1879, Page 3

THE MELBOURNE EXHIBITION BUILDING.

(From the Bryns.)

The tender for the erection of part of the Exhibition building in Carlton-gardens hav-, iug been accepted, the contractor, Mr. D. Mitchell, intends to commence the construction of the building in the course of the present week. The gardens comprise an area of about sixty acres, and it is intended that the Exhibition shall bo held in the centre of the gardens. The site granted by Parliament for Exhibition purposes consists of about twenty acres, but if the project assumes the proportions that it is supposed it will take, a much larger area will have to be granted to the commission. The gardens will have to he in some respects remodelled to suit the architectural features of the structure that it is proposed to erect. The plans for the building have been prepared by Messrs. Heed and Barnes, architects. It is iu the Italian llenaissance style of architecture. It consists of a nave and transept, with side galleries and courts and picture gallery. The length of the nave is 500 ft., with a width of 100 ft., and the transepts are 250 ft. long. At tho intersection of the nave and transepts there is a dome 100 ft. square at the base, and diminishing to an octagon (jOft. in diameter above tho nave arches. The width of tho nave and transepts is to bo GOft.; that of their galleries 20ft.; and tho courts and picture galleries 30ft. The height of tho nave and transepts is to be GOft., that of tho courts and side aisles and side galleries each 17ft. Gin. The picture galleries are to bo 20ft. high. The galleries and roof of the building are to bo supported ou wooden pillars. The roof has frames of a circular form. It is to be lined internally with wood and covered ou tiis outside with corrugated iron. It is to ho lighted by windows inserted iu a clerestory which runs the whole length of the building; at the end of tho transepts and nave are large fanlight windows, which v id 11 materially contribute to the lighting of tho building. Tho dome is to be carried up into an octagonalshaped lantern rising above the roof of the general building, surmounted by a domelike roof and rising to the height of about 200 ft. The main entrances to the exterior of the galleries are to he reached by eight wide staircases. There are to be four main entrances, tile principal one being in the centre of the south front, Tho carriage entrances are to be at the east and west ends of the main building. A passage from the north end of the transept will lead to the annexes, which it is proposed afterwards to erect. The portico of each entrance is spanned by a wide and lofty arch, surmounted by cornices, parapets, and pilasters, and flanked by towers and other architectural features. Tho wall is divided into bays by boldly projecting buttresses, the projection diminishing as the building rises. In each bay will be inserted groups of windows. The estimated cost of the building is between £6' 1 ,000 and £70,000, and it is be finished before the Ist May, 1830.