Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Municipal Offices Middelburg, Mpumalanga HAWKE, McKINLAY and SAYCE: Architect

Date: 1940-1941 Type: Offices Style: Eclectic modernism : Revivalist Status: Unknown

THE FIRST OF THREE GROUPS [of civic buildings comprising the entire scheme]. An Example Of Civic Architecture Attuned To Rural Surroundings *** The new municipal office block just completed at Middelburg, Transvaal, provides an interesting example of civic architecture attuned to rural surroundings. It is a building expressing its civic functions with a dignity which does not impose too heavily on its environment. In its design the architects have tried to express the purpose of the building in terms of a rural community; they have therefore avoided ostentation and pretentiousness which might have proved incongruous. The conception has been carried out on what might be termed a "rural scale," to which face-brick elevations are admirably suited. This scale has been further characterised or suggested by a restful slate roof, the use of bricks of a smaller size than is usual, and by having teak shutters to the windows. The new office block is one of three groups of civic buildings comprising the entire scheme. This provides for the erection, at a later date, of a town hall to seat about 1,500 people and a supper-room with public library and reading-room on the first floor. It is hoped that the construction of the town hall and supper-room groups will begin in the near future, and plans have already been prepared. It must be pointed out, however, that the plans of these two future groups, reproduced here as a single unit with the municipal offices, are not necessarily final. Prior to the erection of the new building, the municipal offices were accommodated in an old corrugated iron building which was one of the single officers' quarters purchased at the sale of the Cantonments on November 16, 1908. The contract for the new building was signed on April 9, 1940, and the foundation stone was laid during July of the same year by the then Mayor of Middelburg, Lieut.-Colonel A. J. B. van der Merwe. The building was officially opened on January 24 last by the Mayor and Mayoress of Middelburg, Mr. and Mrs. H. Laver. Although the selected tenderer's price was nearly £15,000, the completed accounts are expected to show a considerable reduction on this figure. With very few exceptions, South African materials have been used throughout the construction, and the furnishings were hand-made to the architects' design. The architects are Messrs. Hawke, McKinlay & Sayce. (PWSA February 1941 Vol V No 28:11). (SAB May 1940:63). All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.