world news
British Construction Industry to go Metric by 1972
AN important step towards the adoption of the metric system by British industry has been taken with the pub- lication of a programme covering the change-over to the metrics by the construction industry.
Called P.D.6030, the programme is published by the British Standards Institution (BSI). Directed towards achieving metric construction on all sites by the end of 1972, it identifies the principal stages in the change-over process, placing them in logical sequence and indicating the timing for each step.
The change means replacing the present Imperial system of weights and measures by the Metric system. Designers will need to draw and calculate using metric units, bills of quantities will need to be compiled in metric terms, contractors will need to carry out work to metric designs and manufacturers will need to supply components which are metrically sized. At an early stage, conversion tables, measuring instruments and reference books will be needed.
The implementation of the programme will mean radical changes for the British construction industry, says BSI. These will cut costs for British contractors operating in countries using the metric system.
Described as a plan for concerted action by the whole of the British construction industry, the programme is the result of two years work by BSI in consultation with all sectors of the construction industry. It has been assem- bled following the circulation of questionaires from more than 200 trade associations, professional institutions and Government departments.
Design Completed for Roosevelt Memorial
MARCEL Breuer and Herbert Beckhard, architects, of New York, have now completed their designs for the proposed memorial to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Washington.
The structure, which will cost over US$3 million, will consist of seven wall masses sloping away from the core in tangential directions. At the core is a piazza with a centrally placed cube, 32ft. each side. which stands on
low supports.
Each of the sloping walls. 5ft. wide, is flanked by a 5ft. wide pool.
The building material will be grey granite. It will have a rough tooled finish on the sloping walls, a smoother sawn finish on the plaza, and polished on three sides of the cube. On the west side of the cube, confronting the entrance, will be a photographic image of FDR transferred into the stone by a new technique which adapts the texture of halftone engraving and recesses it into the surface.
The stone walls rise 73 ft. above sea level and com- plement rather than compete with the nearby Lincoln Mem- orial (141 ft.) and the Washington Monument (598 ft.).
Tokyo's Imperial Hotel
to be Demolished
ONE of Frank Lloyd Wright's early masterpieces, the Im- perial Hotel in Tokyo, is to be demolished at the end of this year to make way for a multi-storey structure. The hotel management has stated that while it would like to preserve the building, which was damaged by bombing in
Imperial Hotel, Tokyo
Japan Times Photo
World War II and is affected by rapidly sinking ground. the cost of repair would be enormous.
The three-storey hotel was completed in 1923. Wright became famous when the building was the only one in the area to survive the disastrous Kanto earthquake in September of that year. It is one of three buildings in Japan designed by Wright: the others are the old school building of Jiyu Gakuen in Mejiro, Tokyo and a residence at Ashiya known as Yamamura House. Of the three it is the only one constructed under Wright's personal super- vision.
The proposed new building will be constructed in time for the Japan World Exposition, Osaka, 1970. It will be over 20-storeys high, but may retain some features of the original building such as a reproduction of one of the banquet halls.
Three disciples of Wright in Japan, Taro Amano, Kohei Hoshijima and Raku Endo, are planning some form of memorial "funeral" for the old building.
Artist's perspective of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Washington, DC.
Far East Architect & Builder May, 1967
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