No_1_September_and_October__1949 — Page 13

The rear of the building which faces north is quite plain except for a glass brick pane! which extends the full height of the building and which serves to light up the whole of the main stairway.

It was originally intended to lease the ground floor to the Dairy Farm, Ice & Cold Storage Company for a very modern and up-to-date milk bar and restaurant, and for this purpose most of the basement was reserved for the icing and refrigera- tion apparatus they required. The first and second floors were to be let for a limited period for office accommodation, until such time as the growth of Kowloon required additional tele- phone exchange facilities. The rest of the building is laid out to accommodate 23 flats to house the staff of the Telephone Company. Of these, three flats are located on each of the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th floors; two flats on each of the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th floors; with a single penthouse apartment on the top floor. Every advantage was taken of the unusual shape of the building to provide apartments of different sizes, there being 2-room flats with a combined living room-dining room with one bedroom, to 5-room flats with a large living room, a dining room and three bedrooms.

Each lounge has a built-in bookcase, wine cupboard and occasional shelves, all in teak, and an attractive tiled fireplace complete with concealed point for the electric fire. In the larger flats, to break the division of dining room and living room, the bookcase has been built between the two sections.

All bathrooms are equipped with built-in showers, flush valves and tiled dadoes, and each have their own 15-gallon electric hot water storage heater, usually concealed in an adjoining cupboard or closet, except when the bathroom is adjacent to a kitchen. In that case, a 20-gallon heater is provided to supply the hot water required for both.

Kitchens not so connected are equipped with a 1-gallon displacement type heater. Ample kitchen facilities have been provided for each apartment with built-in sinks, preparation tables and crockery cupboards, and provision made for either gas or electricity for the cooking ranges at the option of the occupier of the apartment. Two duct shafts placed in strategic positions in the building take all the piping required for the plumbing and water services leaving all external surfaces. except at the rear of the building, free from their unsight- liness.

Servants' rooms are provided on each floor with separate servants' stairway and a service lift, which operates at the same speed as the two main passenger lifts, i.e. 350 feet per minute. In addition to lifts and staircase, an external fire escape has been provided.

In a building of this height difficulties regarding the water supply naturally had to be overcome. Up to the fourth floor level a direct main supply is given to all cold water faucets,

but above the fourth floor a boosted supply is provided. This supply is pumped up from a reservoir, let into the foundation of the building, to hot and cold water supply tanks in the tower. Incidentally, the dimensions of the clock tower were fixed to accommodate the various water tanks of sufficient capacity to provide the water supply needed for the entire building except for flushing. This flushing supply is pumped up direct from a well sunk on the site to a tank on the roof proper.

The cleanliness in the building will be maintained with the help of a garbage chute which is complete with water sprays and cleaning equipment.

The Causeway Bay building contains eleven flats, two floors of four flats each, and the top floors of three flats. All the servants' quarters are grouped at the west end of the building.

The photograph of the building published with this article gives a very clear impression of its external appearance. There are no outstanding architectural features in the facade, but the rounding of the north-east angle and the curving of the building following the road line produces an unusual effect which gives it a distinctive character of its own. Additional variations in the appearance of the building result from the very noticeable difference in the greater height of the exchange floor and the use of glass brick panels between window open- ings. These glass brick panels are used where the space between windows are part of the brickwork, but when a column intervenes between windows the horizontal effect is carried out with terracotta tiles. The use of glass brick as part, and continuation, of the steel framed windows allows far more light to enter into the rooms and at the same time provides an architectural feature to ал otherwise plain building.

Kowloon Building

General Contractors: Lam Construction Co. Electrical Installation:

British General Electric Co., Ltd. Plumbing Installation: Dodwell & Co., Ltd.

Dodwell & Co., Ltd. (Crittall). Marble, Tiling Work and Mosaic Flooring:

Steel Windows:

Eng. Corp., Ltd.

Lifts:

Otis Elevator Company.

Clock: Inniss & Riddle (China) Ltd. Steel: Chiap Hua Manufactory Co.

Hong Kong Building

Sino-British

General Contractors: Chun Yip & Co. Electric Installation: British General Electric Co., Ltd. Plumbing Installation: Tung On Plumbing Co., Ltd. Steel Windows: Dodwell & Co., Ltd. (Crittall). External Tiling Work: Sino-British Eng. Corp., Ltd. Lifts: Jardine Engineering Corp., Ltd.

CRITTALL

METAL WINDOWS

FOR ALL PURPOSES.

STOCKS AVAILABLE

Sole Agents

DODWELL & CO., LTD.

Machinery & Contracting Dept.

Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank Building.

Hong Kong

11

Tel. 28021,