Conduit Road comprised large old houses on sites of up to an acre and by the end of the year these had either been replaced by towering blocks of flats or were being demo- lished to make way for such de- velopment. Elsewhere on the Island the year saw the completion of fur- ther low-cost housing projects at Shau Kei Wan and Aberdeen and the commencement of development along the extension of Tin Hau Temple Road above North Point. New factories and godowns also made their appearance. but as in previous years. domestic accomoda- tion predominated. accounting for 57.92 per cent of the cost of new building work.
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"On the mainland. the pace even quicker and by the end of the year Nathan Road seemed to semble a vast construction camp with large multi-storey buildings sprouting up on either side. area south of Jordan Road is virtually completed changed from old to new with only buildings as the Peninsula Hotel to remind us of the spaciousness that once was. No further attempts have been made to provide upper floor shopping arcades and it seems to be the general opinion that such schemes are not very suitable for retail trading.
ac-
and
"The demand for domestic commodation in Tsim Sha Tsui ap- peared to be slackening with the advent of street parking meters. The new area of San Po Kong saw much new development and low-cost hous ing schemes were completed at Ma Tau Wei, Choi Hung and Kwun Tong which also saw a continuation
of industrial development. there was no slackening in the de- mand for rented factory space. The opening of the new airport terminal building has changed the face of the area around Kowloon City which is already resulting in increasing building activity. The year saw the erection of the first really high building in the New Territories. twelve storey block of flats at Tsuen Wan. Development of Tsuen Wan a satellite town continued, but flats were slow to fill up and there were many empty flats at the end of the year. It appeared that many of the units built were too large to at- tract the average tenant who, while normally subletting, does not wish
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amount of rent he has to pay out of his own pocket.
"Other features of the year have been the building of a number of new cinemas, the opening of several large new restaurants, new hotels and the extension of banking facili- ties to secondary business centres."
ΟΣ
▲ This is one of the rare buildings that pays some tribute to Chinese design. The first four floors of the eyecatching struc- ture, the Golden Crown Court, are covered with huge Chinese plaster dragons aglow with color and with their eyes flashing.
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER-VOLUME 19, NUMBER 1
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