The architects are Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton, in association with Mr. Joseph Salerno. Mr. Walther Prokosch, of the USA, is the consulting engineer.
Italian-Thai Development Corporation, Ltd. were awarded the contract for the foundations of the hotel. The general contractors are South East Asia Construction Co., Ltd., in association with Siphya Construction Co., Ltd., and electrical and mechanical installations will be by Consolidated Comstock Co., Inc., USA. The hotel is scheduled for completion by June 1966.
OFFICE PLANS ANNOUNCED
PLANS for two new office giants for the central area of Hong Kong were announced last month. Well known landmarks, Sutherland House in Chater Road and Pedder Building in Pedder Street will be demolished to make way for the new structures.
Sutherland House will be replaced by an 18-storey block costing about HK$4 million. It will include
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Models of the new blocks planned for Pedder Street (left) and Chater Road, Hong Kong
ground floor shops, a bank, and a restaurant. The architect is Mr. Kuo Yuan-hsi. Demolition work has started, but the main contract has not yet been let.
The new Pedder Building will have 12 storeys step- ped back from the narrow main frontage. Demolition of the old building on this site is also under way and tenders for the construction will be invited in March. The architect is Mr. Tam Heung Shing.
ARCHITECTS MERGER
MAJOR subject occupying future council meetings of the Singapore Institute of Architects will be the possible formation of a national body of architects whereby the Federation of Malaya Society of Architects will be merged with the SIA.
The new organisation would take in members from the other Malaysia territories in Borneo and Sabah. Next meetings of the council are on February 8 and March 8.
TAIWAN TO BRUNEI
MORE than 60 construction workers have been recruited from Taiwan for projects in Brunei the first Chinese from Taiwan to work in North Bornei.
They have been taken on by Mr. Chen Pang, who runs two building firms in Brunei. Their pay will range from US$80 to US$150 a month for a contracted period of three years.
ABATTOIR DECISION SOON
CONSTRUCTION firms in Britain, Denmark, Australia, Sweden and West Germany have submitted tenders for building a M$4.6 million abattoir and animal quarantine station at the mouth of the Jurong River to cater for
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Singapore's meat canning industry. Five firms from a total of 25 have been shortlisted by the Government and a decision is expected this month.
Before an acceptance is made, Government staff are studying a report on the implications of the tenders by Dr. N. Wernberg, United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation expert. A Government party, which in- cluded Mr. L. Rozario, senior architect, PWD, recently returned from Bangkok where it looked at the layout and construction of a modern abattoir.
NO SITE SHORTAGE
HONG KONG Resettlement Department's target of 900,000 places by 1970 would not be held up by shortage of sites, said the Hon. A.M.J. Wright, Director of Public Works, at last month's annual debate of the Housing Authority. Granted that the authority's proposals were matched by necessary funds, there would be adequate sites in the 1970s to meet all known or anticipated demands for new housing, industry and social services.
On the need for more open spaces in new estates he said that population densities at Kwai Chung, Kun Tong and Tsun Wan sites would be high as they must be if we were to make any impact on housing in a short space of time, but densities of building volume in relation to open space would be considerably lower than else- where in the Colony.
The Kwai Chung plan included a commercial centre that would put pedestrians at first floor level, segregated from traffic, with "a generous provision of public open space."
UNIVERSITY GRANT
NEW ZEALAND has made a grant of £70,000 to the Government of South Vietnam for the erection of a building for the science faculty of the University of Saigon.
The grant will finance the construction of a geology, zoology and physiology block in the new university complex which is being built about ten miles from Saigon. Work will start shortly and will take about a year to complete.
PRESIDENT CITED
THE President Hotel. Hong Kong was the only non- American hotel cited among the prizewinners in the 1964 interior design competition sponsored by “Institu- tions" magazine.
It won
an award for the design of an "Entire Institution." The judges, who included some of America's leading interior designers, said the President had the romance and colour of the Orient. They took into account the unstinted use of Asian art and design on every floor of the building.
New York design the firm respon-
Mr. William Pahlmann, of the group. William Pahlmann Associates sible for the interior of the hotel presentation in Chicago recently and received the award.
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attended the
GIRL GRADUATE
Miss Tan Lee See, a Malaysian, was the only female to graduate as a Bachelor of Architecture from Melbourne University in December.
At present working in the Public Works Department of Victoria, Miss Tan comes from Kajang, Malaya. She is the fourth member of her family to graduate from the university.
INAUGUAL ADDRESS
NEW President of the Hong Kong Society of Architects, Mr. C. Astbury, will present his inaugural address at the Society's first quarterly meeting in 1965 scheduled for Thursday, March 4.
The meeting will be held at the City Hall and will probably be followed by a documentary film.
Far East Architect & Builder February, 1965