The Argus
23/ 8/1873
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The Chiltern correspondent of the Ovens and Murray Advertiser has been shown a design for a new style of architecture suitable for public buildings in the hot climate of Australia .' The design is now to be seen in the reading-room of the Chiltern Athenaeum, it having been drawn by Mr Gray, of the Public Works department, during his residence in Chiltern. The plan is made out for a church to hold 600 people, but could also be made most suitable for hospitals and schools. The main portion of the building is in the form of a cross, with four wings, and may be of one or two stories. The building has a dome 50ft. high flanked with four pediments and four circular staircases. The framework is of angle and T iron resting on 20 cast-iron pillars diagonally braced with iron rods, and filled in with a thin wall of brick, plastered on both sides.
To protect the walls, the building has verandahs and balconies all round, of ornamental cast-iron work; the eaves, stairs, fronts of galleries, and the ends or frames for seats are also of ornamental ironwork. The centre of the building is lighted from the base of the dome with obscured or coloured glass. The dome is in four sections, the upper sections to be covered with sheet copper or yellow plate, surmounted with a gilt ball and vane. As a matter of economy, this upper part of the dome may be dispensed with without impairing the design in any way. Mr Gray proposes to ventilate the building by a new system of ventilation for which he is taking out a patent.
The estimated cost of the building is £3,000 or £5 per sitting, being about half the cost of a stone building of similar dimensions and one third less than one of brick and cement. It would also be quite as durable.
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