Bernard Navetta of the Trade Development Coun- cil, and Christopher Haffner of Spence Robinson.
With the opening now only months away, work on the Osaka site is now at full pace. One Japanese contractor, Takenaka Komuten Co. Ltd., already busy on several schemes, has started work on four new pavilions for The Netherlands, The Province of Quebec, The European Economic Community, and the State of Washington.
The Netherlands pavilion will resemble a house of building blocks, supported by four columns rising out of water. Visitors to the 30-metre high pavilion will walk on a path built about 1.5 metre lower than the surface of an artificial lake, to
Netherlands
Quebec
European Economic Community
Washington State
symbolise the topographical conditions of the Netherlands.
The Quebec pavilion, designed by Canadian architect, Jacques de Blois and located immediate- ly to the west of the Canadian Government Pavilion, will look like a pair of gigantic sails billowing in the wind and rising to a height of 29.4 metres. The first floor of the pavilion will have three wings, housing a restaurant, a theatre and a reception area. An escalator will lead to the 'superstructure' which will hold three theatres and an observation deck.
Designed to the theme 'Creative Power for Peace', the pavilion of the European Economic Community will feature displays highlighting the economic function of the EEC. Most of the exhibits will be underground and the roof of the building will be turned into a European plaza.
Washington State's pavilion, a compostition of rectangular blocks, will be constructed entirely from redwood trees, for which the state is famous.
HK$5.2m prisoners' mental hospital
Tenders have been invited for the construction of a new prisoners' mental hospital in the New Territories, Hong Kong. Estimated to cost about HK$5.2 million, it will command wide views of Castle Peak Bay and Tai Lam Chung reservoir from its hilltop site above Castle Peak Road, Siu Lam.
Beds for 120 mentally-distubed patients will be provided in four separate blocks. There will also be a three-storey administrative building and a two- storey sick bay and kitchen block. On adjacent sites, three blocks of flats for a further 39 families will be erected as homes for the medical super- intendent, nursing and other staff.
Special care has been taken in the design of the hospital to avoid the appearance of a prison building, but maximum security has not been overlooked. Windows have small openings to avoid the use of bars and doors are reinforced internally instead of externally. Colour, outside and in will be non-institutional.
The project, which will take about 15 months to complete, is designed by Spence Robinson, the partner in charge being Mr. Bryon Pedersen.
More rooms for hotel site
Special concessions under the HK Buildings Ordinance in relation to bona fide hotels will give the developer of a Tsim Sha Tsui site an extra 300 rooms. The 48,850 sq.ft. site goes on sale on November 28 at an upset price of HK$25 million.
Without these concessions, the site would have allowed 350,000 sq.ft. for residential use, which in effect could mean a hotel with 800 rooms. The concessions now give the developer 450,000 sq.ft. with which to work, or a hotel with 1,100 rooms. Government has announced that the site buyer will be required to fulfil a building covenant of HK$12 million by March 31, 1974.
Far East BUILDER, November 1969
7