No_6_April_1964 — Page 112

CHINESE UNIVERSITY

OF HONG KONG

106

A model of the proposed University layout.

CHUM

CH

DOL LEGK

m

10-ORDINATION

between the Plover Cove Water Scheme and the planned Chinese University ... two gigantic Hong Kong construction projects will result in a saving of millions of dollars.

Half of the University's 273 acre site all formidable. barren and hilly ground extending over spurs and valleys on a hillside between Shatin and Taipo in Kowloon has been reserved as a "borrow area” for the construction of water scheme dams.

While the fulfillment of this tre mendous engineering

engineering requirement may call for certain compromises in the ideal planning of the University. it will be a blessing in disguise from an economic point of view. for the excavation will reduce the moun

tainous site to platforms suitable for building work.

The total quanity of excavation will be more than nine million cubie yards. but the amount of this taken by the Water Scheme is still a matter for conjecture as only materials suitable for water retaining walls will be used.

The layout of the University fol- lows on three months of negotiation between the architects and water scheme engineers. That agreement over such diverse problems could be reached in this short time is consider- ed a great achievement by both sides.

The proposed layout makes logical use of the site and follows, as much as sound planning permits. the ter rain of the ground. It also answers the needs and requirements of the water project, the entry on to the site from the highway and the in- ternal road system and the plat forming.

The long-awaited University, which will take about ten years to complete and will house more than 2.000 students. has been the subject of years of painstaking work by the Kwan Preparatory Committee and the Fulton Commission.

In a preliminary report prepared Mr W. Szeto. the senior architect for the project, the findings of a three months study of the technical pro- blems involved in drawing up a de velopment plan for the University are given at length and will be published in greater detail in the June issue of “The Builder.”

The report explains that the Uni- versity will consist of a satellite plan of colleges grouped around a head- quarters complex. United College and New Asia College will be built to the North above the existing Chung Chi College on lower ground to the South.

THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER-VOLUME 18, NUMBER 6