SAFETY FROM ’QUAKES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 787, 7 October 1929, Page 14

SAFETY FROM ’QUAKES

AUCKLANDER INVESTIGATES IN AMERICA ARCHITECT’S CLOSE STUDY A special study of earthquakeresisting construction was made by an Auckland architect during a recent tour of Canada and the United States. He was in Chicago when a New Zealand cable told him of the West Coast disaster, and decided immediately to earmark two months of his time for investigation in the Pacific. Coast earthquake areas. THE traveller was Mr. C. Trevithick, who returned on the Niagara today after nearly six months’ absence. "I visited America for research work in all questions relating to materials, plannings and the general development of architecture iu the United States,” he told The Sun. "When I heard of the West Coast trouble I spent two months doing nothing but studying earthquake-resist-ing construction work.

"I interviewed all the prominent experts, and visited three universities where special research was being carried out —the Institute of Technology. Stanford University and Berkley University. "All are experimenting with elaborate rocking tables and other apparatus, basing and developing their calculations on all the known movements over a period of many years. EFFECTIVE RESISTANCE "To get down to a working standard they have assumed a certain maximum of severity and are making all calculations on that assumption. "It has been shown that effective resistance can be established. I do not say that there would not be cracks, but collapse can be avoided.” The cost of "earthquake-proofing” a building, he continued, was not very much more than that of ordinary construction, and the whole idea was to make the building as rigid as possible. Steel frame and concrete type work was favoured in the earthquake zones. "Very few precautions are taken in New York beyond the usual bracing for wind pressure,” said Mr. Trevithick. “They told me there was no need as they had never had an earthquake. Yet, since I left they have had one.” Buildings were being erected in New York in a fashion that would not be tolerated under Auckland’s present by-laws, he observed. The idea appeared to be that a building should be constructed to last 25 years after which it would be obsolete. Today buildings of from 15 to 20 storeys were being torn down to make way for 70-storey skyscrapers. For three weeks Mr. Trevithick did nothing but refrigerating and packing work and he inspected the great buildings of Armour’s, Swift’s and others. ONE-ROOM APARTMENTS Apartment houses of from one to 20 rooms he found were 'being built everywhere. The one-roomed apartments were most ingenious, having folding beds, tables and seats so that the entire character of tlie room could be altered at will. “The cost of building in America is about the same as in New Zealand,” he said. “Wages are twice as high, but materials are only half the price of ours.” Reductions in the price of materials, including furnishings, were being secured by rigid and far-reach-ing standardisation.