Rebuilding Auckland

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 71, 15 June 1927, Page 8

Rebuilding Auckland

It Pays to Build Upward

AUCKLANDERS choose to regard Queen Street as a street of skyscrapers. Actually, there are still 35 two-storey buildings, and one humble one-storey structure, between the Town Hall and Quay Street. Neighbonring buildings tower to the limit, 102 feet above pavement level.

A UCKLAND adopted the height limit in 1917, to cover the New Zealand Insurance building. Later came the Milne and Choyce building, originally designed to be a threestorey structure. When the building had actually been started the plans were revised, and a loftier pile was created. Eager to go even higher than the statutory allowance, the firm endeavoured —but fruitlessly—to have the restrictions eased. As it hapr pened the difficulty was overcome by the construction of a Mansard roof, an additional form permitted under the by-laws. PARAPETS GO HIGHER

Such extra roofs must not infringe hn the street frontage, but the persometimes added counter the effect of that provision.

Another interesting point is the manner in which the parapets of high buildings actually go above the stipulated 102 feet. The by-law says the height is to be 102 feet from the footpath to the top of the parapet, and the parapet has to be 36in. high. In practice, the buildings which “go the limit” rise the distance before the parapet is added. Thus, the top of the parapet is realy 105 feet above the street. Provision is made in the by-laws for buildings erected on uneven groundin these cases the height is calculated from the highest level of the site The desire to construct high buildings is now fairly general among property-owners. When hundreds of feet of floor space is occupied in the larger buildings, there is palpable loss of rents and opportunity where ancient one and two-floored buildings are allowed to remain on land vortb £1,500 per foot of frontage. OFFICES TO LET Of course, there is always the other side. In some of the lofty buildings the “To Let” sign is at present fairly

freely displayed. Trading concerns rarely like to go above the first floor, the result being that the upper floors are consecrated to offices and beautyparlours. Rents for one room in the higher floors of Queen Street build ings run from £1 upwards. Many offices are at present vacant, but that is only a transient phase, and the demand, apart from periods of minor slackness, seems likely to increase steadily. Not by a long way are the tall buildings confined to Queen Street. Paykels Building in Anzac Avenue, and Nathan’s in Fort Street, are recent examples of the soaring tendency, and in High Street and O’Connell Street several other buildings rear their upperworks skyward to a considerable elevation. Side by side in O’Connell

Street are Nathan’s old warehouse and Gleeson’s Building, for a time the tallest buildings in the city, and a reminder that at one time there was keen competition for supremacy. MANY TALL BUILDINGS To-day the tall buildings are numerous, and solid piles of masonry cut the skyline. Nearly all new buildings in Queen Street go as high as the limit allows. The main roof of the Dilworth Building is 102 feet up, and the superstructure goes con siderably higher. Cook’s new building, and the Colonial Mutual Assurance building, will both go to the maximum, and others not yet going that far are often designed for extra floors later.

Earthquakes, lighting, and the general idea that there is no need for extravagantly high buildings, are factors taken into consideration in applying the' restrictions. The sky may be the limit in teeming American cities, but Auckland does not want its streets to be dark alleys into which the sunlight never penetrates.