commodation required in co-ordinated being a difference in level of 70 feet panels will be rendered with Shanghai units Government embarked upon what in 150 within the length of the build- plaster, or faced with tiles. was then considered a very ambitious ing. It will therefore be stepped from project of building two huge blocks, the sixth floor to the ground floor the west end of the building from the Four passenger lifts will operate at one extending along Lower Albert with a resultant decrease in the area main entrance hall to the twelfth floor Road from Garden Road, where the of each floor.
old Volunteer Headquarters used to
at 500 f.p.m. One passenger lift at
stand, up to and including the site of The main (west) entrance is at the the east end will service the sixth to the old Colonial Secretariat, and the junction of Ice House Street and Bat- twelfth floors at 350 f.p.m. A service second block to extend from there tery Path, at which point the building lift will be installed for departmental westward, on a line roughly parallel rises thirteen floors with a total height use.
with Battery Path right up to the of 153 feet above the pavement. The On the sixth floor will be situated a
boundary of Ice House Street and east entrance, facing the new Secre- Queen's Road.
tariat, is on the seventh floor level large kitchen and the main air-condi- coincident with the existing ground tioning plant room. The seventh floor level there. Above this are a further will contain a staff dining room, the six storeys. A third entrance is situat- north wall of which will be cantilever- ed at the end of the Ice House Street ed from the face of the building, and will look like early in 1959. When the wing commencing on the first floor completely glazed. entire project is completed these two level. Vertical circulation from all buildings, together with the Education
The perspective drawing shown above is a graphical representation of
what the Central Government Offices
three entrances is linked horizontally The whole of the upper site between Department Offices now occupying within the building on the eighth floor the Secretariat and the West Wing,
ments.
and above.
the old French Mission Building at
and from the line of Lower Albert the top of Battery Path, will house
Road to the top of Battery Path will the majority of Government Depart- The structure is of reinforced con- be excavated and roofed with a rein- crete expressed internally and ex- forced concrete slab to form an under-
a nine-foot grid. As is already known, the entire ternally on a
The ground car park. Access will be by a scheme has been planned in three dis- length of the main north-east facade down ramp from Lower Albert Road, tinct stages, the East Wing having facing Queen's Road will be 343'9", and an exit will be formed on the up- been completed towards the end of and the north-west elevation along per leg of Battery Path. This under- 1953, the short extension to which Ice House Street will be 148'-6" long. ground car park will in fact have was added the following year. The Office windows are designed to allow natural ventilation on its one exposed Central Wing which is known as the internal partitions on a 4'-6" module. wall to the north. The car park con- new Colonial Secretariat, together with
struction will be carried out in four The building will stand on a raft its connecting link and Council Cham- bers Annex, completed before the end foundation stepped to the gradient of stages, Stage I having been completed of 1956, comprised the second stage, Regulations, the
the site. To conform with Building work will proceed simultaneously with and raked at an angle of 76
now the West Wing represents Regulations, the Ice House Street the main building contract.
degrees from the seventh floor to the roof.
the final stage.
will
Sited immediately to the west of the new Secretariat, the West Wing will
finishes Generally, external extend to the junction of Queen's Road, Ice House Street and Battery match those of the two existing units of the Central Government Offices. Path as an L-shaped block,
block, the
shorter leg fronting on Ice House Granite facing stones will be used
in December. The remainder of the
Street which will be widened on its as permanent shuttering, with Shang- hai plaster rendering to the frame. east side.
There will be some wall panelling The site is particularly steep to- faced with slate to match the Colonial wards its western boundary, there Secretariat, but in the main, the
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24
Plan of the ninth floor of the West Wing, before setting out of internal partitions. This is typical of the five upper floors of the building.
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