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Auckland Gains a Well-behaved Building

Architects:Vernon Brown and Simpson.

Builders: R. Savory Ltd.

Owners: The Auckland Glass Co., Hobson St.

In our cities, the street rather than the individual building is the architectural unit. With city buildings packed tightly against one another, each building becomes merely an incident in the street facade.

And so far as most buildings are concerned, they turn only one face to the outside world. To the man in the street, city architecture is two dimensional.

In designing a city building on a section of limited frontage such as this, the architect is designing part of the street wall. It has been the architect's lack of awareness of this context of their buildings that has been largely responsible for the medley of discordant styles that make up the city street. The other contributing factor is the conscious striving for each building to dominate its neighbour—the result of our social attitude.

We welcome this building as the first piece of street architecture in New Zealand of which we know. Its quiet dignity offers opportunity for new buildings to live with it in harmony. It is the modern counterpart of the buildings making up the streets of Georgian London.

Of particular interest are the vertical wooden louvres, designed to break the glare from the setting sun, and the manner in which the front wall has been treated. The structural framework is clearly covered by a non-structural skin of glass and asbestos. Columns and beams are covered on the outside by plaster. Glass divisions are determined by needs of ventilation. Together, logical, decorative, and serviceable.