Hotel
p. 25 · Read in the full issue
Modern Buildings
For Suva
New South Seas
Hotel
i FTER a bad start, the construction of the new South Seas Hotel— Dcated at the corner of Victoria 'arade and Gordon Street, Suva, and wned by Messrs. Morris Hedstrom ,td. —is to be resumed in the first alf of 1955, It is hoped to complete ; in 1956, at a total cost (including
jrnishings) of about £.250,000, plus
uns so far spent on the project.
Building construction began piginally at the end of 1952. The nmdations and first storey, suf cient to accommodate the liquor ars, had been completed, and the quor bar had just come into opera on, when the unprecedented earth iiake of September 12, 1953, scurred. Much structural damage i buildings was reported.
As the plans for the South Seas otel had made no provision for irthquakes, construction ceased amediately, while the whole pro ct was reconsidered. Flans have en revised once or twice since.
It was announced in November, lat Messrs. N. Cole Ltd, of Auck nd, who have built some of NZ’s ost modern hotels, had completed isigns for building and furnishings, id that tenders for the completion the job would be called in Aus alia, New Zealand and Fiji early 1955.
THIS is to be a first-class hotel, . catering for the tourist trade.
It will have five floors, serviced two lifts. The public bar, lounge r, bottle department, hotel offices id three shops will be on the ound floor. A lounge and dining om on the first floor will ac modate 100 people at a time. This 11 be linked with a cocktail lounge r. 3ixty-six guests will be accommo ted in 36 bedrooms on the third, irth and fifth floors. Each bedroom 11 have its own bathroom and Icony. The flat concrete roof will ord panoramic views of Suva and ; harbour.
Since September, 1953, the liquor ense of the old, and now tnolished Club Hotel has operated, der Mr. W. H. Hayward, on the >und floor of the South Seas 'tel. Formal application was made November for renewal of the snse; but hearing was adjourned iding a magisterial inspection—
! licensing authority has been
iking some assurance as to when ; hotel is to be completed.
HE completion of the South Seas Hotel, on the western corner of Victoria Parade and Gordon ‘eet, and of the fine, new, two rey building to be erected in 1955,
by the Barker Estate on the opposite corner, will emphasise the change that has taken place in Suva in recent years.
The old town, now looking some what shabby and discoloured, lies westward of the Triangle. But east wards of the Triangle, and now extending along the north side of Victoria Parade and halfway towards the Government Buildings and the Grand Pacific Hotel, and looking out across the harbour, is an almost continuous line of modern, white, concrete buildings—mostly shops and offices.