ROOM
MACHINE RM.
YANK
LOBBY
PASSAGE
COVERED
WAY
TERRACE
ROOL!
CA
N
Y
CANOPY OVER
(Above) The penthouse
on the roof.
(Centre) Typical office
floor plan.
LOBBY
F F
BANK OF CANTON
SHOP
SHOP
LOBBY
OFFICI ENTRANCE
YARD
CORRIDOR
C
E
\\CORRIDOR
SCO YARD
S H
ICE HOUSE STREET
BOARD ROOM
I
✔
MERCANTILE
食
BANK
***
STORE
SCALE
(Below) Plan
of the
ground
floor.
The maximum area on the upper floors is devoted to office space, with a minimum utilised by the lobby, corridor, lifts, air ducts, lavatories and two staircases: light to the main It is of interest to note that all of staircase is provided by means of the offices in the building are locat- glass blocks set in the corner wall of ed at the front and so receive ade- the building.
quate light.
board room and the main lobby are accessible to an extensive terrace at the front of the building.
The two rooms at the Des Voeux Road corner are enclosed by a con- tinuous glass wall, behind which is a long terrazzo window seat; from one of these rooms a staircase ascends to the terrace on the upper roof.
At the back of the building, and entered either from the lobby or from the service staircase are a large store, a kitchen, a servants' lavatory, pump room and machine room.
The building is of normal rein- forced concrete frame construction with hollow tile rib floors and roof. Offices have asphalt tile floors. At the ground floor level, external walls at the front of the building are faced with Travertino marblę and the showcases of the shops are fram- ed in bronze. The entrance columns and walls in the arcade are faced with Bussiere G. V. and Portoro marble; the floors are made up of two varieties of Travertino marble. The two small balconies on the eighth and ninth floors have bronze rallings.
-
The corner tower is, of course, the dominating feature of the exterior of the building; it rises to the full height of the structure, without in- terruption by set-backs, and is faced with light reddish brown glazed terra-cotta tiles from the mezzanine floor level up to the ninth floor. Win- dows have been set in the corner of this tower, and the apparent width of the very narrow corner has been increased by extending the back wall of the building to form a deep fin, which is finished in tooled plas- ter. The corner windows have press- ed steel spandrels painted a light bronze colour.
Above the shops there is a canopy, which not only serves as weather protection, but also divides the ground floor from the upper office floors. The lower six floors of offices
sharp angle in the corner of the building which would have been al- have been unified elevationally by a most useless to the occupants.
wide concrete surround faced with buff coloured tiles, and the windows have deep ribs and sills with a tooled plaster finish: these shield the offices from the late afternoon sun and also form a distinctive decorative feature of honeycomb design; this is phasised by the panels beneath windows, which are faced with con- trasting light blue glazed tiles.
a
em- the
Because of the shape of the site, it The penthouse on the roof, which is inevitable that some of the offices is intended for the use of the own- are themselves a little awkward in ers, is served by the two staircases, shape an observation which is par- The main staircase opens into ticularly true of those offices at the lobby, from which access may be had Des Voeux Road corner of the build- through
The whole of the building, includ- a covered way to a board ing: the criticism might be made room on one side, and directly to a ing the shops, is "Carrier” air-con- that in these latter offices the ogee suite of two private offices or retir- diticned by means of a central plant curve appearing on plan in the ex- ing rooms and a bathroom
installed by International Engineer- ternal wall has only been introduced other side. The board room, which ing Ltd. The plant includes two 60 to add increased interest to the ele- has one semi-circular end wall and h.p. belt-driven compressors in the vation. which it surely does. but incorporates a fireplace, has its own basement and an evaporative con- the reason for it lies rather in the private lavatory and a large closet denser located on the roof. The air desire of the architects to avoid a opening off a small lobby. Both the supply to each floor can be adjusted
18
on
the
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