CLAMOUR TO SERENITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 914, 6 March 1930, Page 7

CLAMOUR TO SERENITY

Elegant Power Building ARCHITECTURAL DISTINCTION FROM the clamour of the traffic-ridden depths of Queen Street, the Auckland Electric-Power Board’s building attains, in graceful flights, to the greatest elevation above the principal street. There is dignity in the fluted columns, aspiring gently to the elegance of the linials and the delicately-tapered minarets. An outlook over thriving Auckland, scarcely equalled in serenity, comes from this combination of distinctive architectural features.

Something of the vigorous spirit of i this growing Auckland has been j written in the stonework of the build- I ing which has added colour and struc- i fural fineness to mid-Queen Street. It. is essentially modern. Colour in stone —unheard of in dimmer architec j tural days—has been made a pleasing j reality in this building. It tells another story, glossed over perhaps in the immediate appreciation of new ideas in builder’s work, but none the less of first importance. That is the readiness with which New Zealand building planners, contractors and designers have accepted the notions of the day and have made them a definite thing in the excellence of the building. There is a wealth of detail in the intricately-designed facades, to Queen Street and Durham Street —and it is unfortunate that subsidiary Durham Street, because of limits in building space, has the greater frontage—which cannot be understood in a passing glance. In this, there will be charm for city people. Those who appreciate architecture will find a delight in some hitherto unnoticed detail. PERMANENT COLOURING And colour ... a phase of the builder’s are which must have the complete attention of architects and designers in the future. Auckland is leading the Dominion in correct examples of colour work in stone. In the Power Board building, colour is a permanent thing, in the stonework preparation itself. Weather will not deteriorate the tints. Here the observer w ill find a shade bordering mildly on chocolate. The soft cream note of the ample totver is repeated below; elsew'here, the careful external finish for a floor or so w r ill hint at pink. The experiment in shading, if it can be called an experiment, is alone sufficient to endow the building with its pronounced atmosphere of distinction. The exterior is not simple. Full efforts have been made to achieve decorative value with a scrupulous regard for detail work. The product of this ambition is an effective exterior, interesting for the new directions in which architectural thought has turned and impressive for the lightness and the delicacy which can be revealed in structural work. Floral designs brighten faces of stone just over the ground floor, there are occasional decorative lamps of bronze and leadlight—a bold step from ordinary avenues of procedure. So, from the delights of the lower storeys, where a series of flat-sided, sturdy and fluted pillars rise to the first floor to give way to unusually finely moulded columns for the remainder of the sheer distance to the top floor, there is a tremendous variety of colourful detail. INTERIOR SIMPLICITY The interior has been simply arranged. An abundance of Italian

effectively, Long lines o£ flax and raupo points can be seen in the plaster decorations; the whole idea is as original as the plan brought into effect so well in Auckland’s War Memorial Museum—tlie incorporation in the plaster work of accepted Maori carving designs. In the Power Board building, too, one may find the soft curves of treefern fronds traced in plaster. DELIGHTS IN PANELLING There are delights in panelling, especially in the executive offices of the Power Board itself. In the magnificent board room, richly carpeted, mottled kauri and polished kauri produce an extremely restful tone. Inlays of New' Zealand w'oods, with occasional choice imported timbers to tone, can be seen in other fine specimens of panelling. The w’oodw'ork harmonises with the quality of the quiet toning in the offices and the corridors. Mr. A. M. Bartley, of the firm of architects, Wade and Bartley, says the planning became practically a hobby, and the completeness of the detail has been largely the result of

this. It has been a huge task. The deepest foundations of any building in Queen Street were excavated for the building, to 51ft. In doing so, the Ligar Canal of older Auckland, nowhidden beneath a commercial district, was uncovered. During the celebration, brilliant fiood-lighting at night has been wisely chosen to emphasise the excellence of the exterior. Cream and deepening crimson lights play nightly on the 130 ft of the structure to the tower, picked out in a splash of emerald and topping the eight actual storeys, to reveal the structure fer what it can be considered—a beacon building in Auckland’s architecture.