No_1_June_1962 — Page 62

I L

1

NEW KOWLO HAVE 180 LE

FFFFFFFF

HARI

NEWEST addition to the growing

number of hotels needed to provide accommodation for the swelling tide of tourists

tourists yearly coming to enjoy the scenic and shopping delights of Hong Kong is the Merlin, now rapidly approaching completion at the junction of Hang- kow Road and Middle Road in the heart of Kowloon's hotel and shop- ping area.

Erected on a corner site of 10,290 square feet, the Merlin Hotel has a basement and fourteen floors. Each floor above ground level has a floor area of 7,900 square feet and bal conies outside each letting room. Total cubic content of the building is 1.266.000 cubic feet.

The basement contains, in addition to machinery space, a restaurant for hotel guests and for the public. On the ground floor are the hotel lounge and reception area plus a depart- ment store quite separate from the hotel and occupying the greater part of the area. The first to the twelfth floors inclusive contain letting rooms. The thirteenth floor will be given up to office accommodation apart from the hotel.

In all the Merlin will have 180 letting rooms. Each floor will have fourteen double rooms (15 feet by 25 feet) each with its own bathroom and built-in clothes cupboards, and one suite including double bedroom. sitting room and bathroom. Floors in all letting rooms

are of PVC tiling. Each room has its own balcony.

No particular problems had to be overcome in erecting the Merlin which is constructed in reinforced concrete pillar and beam with panel walls with the normal span for buildings of this type. The entrance lobby is floored in terrazzo tiling

;