Colla
ADAM JA
The typical floor plan of the three smaller buildings which are all of identical design but differently orientated.
* A
HALL W. AL
BED ROOM
DINING AM
LIVING ROOM
Aza Ann
PIT
A diagrammalle sketch of the completed lift structure.
larger proportion of the apartment. In the case of the main apartment, the living room is flanked by three bedrooms, while the two side apart- ments have two bedrooms each. All apartments contain two bath-
rooms.
The kitchen-pantry for each apartment is conveniently located and fully equipped.
The main entrance is placed at the centre of the building and leads on to a long corridor and to the staircase which gives access to the upper floors. The position of the entrance hall cuts the length of the corridor and reduces the distance to the doorways of each apartment On one side of this corridor lies the kitchen and servants' room for the main apartment and the separate servants staircase. A number of cupboards for each apartment and store rooms is strategically planned on each floor.
By no means the least interesting part of the project is the formalised garden arrangement, which is being laid out to fit into this upper terrace. One can only envy the residents of these buildings who are able to enjoy the splendid isolation of this mag- nificent location.
The site originally belonged to
# [
Photograph of the completed lift structure. Cable & Wireless, Ltd., but after the war it was sold and is now the scene of a very extensive development sponsored by Mr. W. H. Kwan, well-known architect in the Colony.
The Japanese in preparing this site for the war memorial altered the whole aspect of the district. They pulled down a number of private dwellings which occupied this area and circumscribed a very much more limited area of ground with a huge stone masonry retaining wall which was designed to form the massive base of the monument pro- per. On this extensive terrace, Mr. Kwan has now completed a project which has become a monument of an entirely different kind,
A four-storeyed building of most
51
BALCONY
unusual shape and arrangement which has been named the Cameron Mansions, now occupies the centre portion of the site. This main building is Banked by three smaller and more conventional apartment blocks, one of which occupies the extreme point at the north end of the lot and at a much lower level on the north side of the retaining wall.
The floor plan of these three buildings provides for the four main rooms occupying the full length of the frontage, the entrance hall, staircase and service rooms being distributed in the rear section of the building. In this way the occupants of the flats are able to enjoy the magnificent view from any room in the house, each building having been so placed as to allow complete and uninterrupted vistas in the direction they are facing.
Each of these buildings are three- storeys in height, each floor being a self-contained flat comprising two bedrooms with attached bath, and a large living/dining room combina tion, separated only by folding doors, and opening on to a covered verandah which extends the full width of the two rooms
The construction of the inclined lift from the roadway up the sloping face of the retaining wall is of particular interest. It is a Schindler lift of a design which can be adapted to em brace any angle of incline and any height of ascent, with as many inter- mediate stops as might be necessary for any particular requirement is the first installation of its kind in Hong Kong.
This
General contractor: Union Con-
struction Co.
Lift installation: Jardine Engin
eering Corp. Ltd.