Interesting Colours and Shapes

We had another lovely day but not as good as yesterday. As the day went on the clouds started to arrived but we haven't had any rain yet.

John told me that you can see the old Millers building now.. what's left of it. The coverings which have been up there for just about a year are mostly been removed. I remember this building when I was a child going up on the only escalator in New Zealand. Mum would do some shopping then we would go and have something to eat on the top floor.

The building was originally designed in 1935 by G. A. Hart for the retail store, factory and warehouse Millers and was completed in 1939. It was notable for its structural design concept of beamless floor slab construction in reinforced concrete where the design loads, including earthquake forces, are transferred to the hexagonal columns by mushroom-shaped heads and drop slabs.

This concept was originated by a French Swiss engineer, Robert Maillart around 1912 and was further developed in the 1920s by the Bauhaus in Germany under the architects, Peter Behrens and Walter Gropius.

Millers was a well established retail and manufacturing business with many branch shops. The building was their head office, factory and main retail store. It boasted the first escalator in the South Island and one of the first in New Zealand. Millers Department Store was there between 1939-1979. When the building was put up for sale in 1978 the council purchased it to refurbish as Civic Offices. The Christchurch City Council moved into new premises in the refurbished former New Zealand Post building on Hereford Street in August, 2010.

For more information The former Civic Offices and Millers Department Store.