Deciding the fate of the Wellington Library

Submissions are in on the public consultation and now Wellington City has to decide what to do with its library, its useful life curtailed by a radical engineering re-assessment of its earthquake safety rating. The stopgap mini-libraries that have popped up around town in Manners St, Brandon St and in the back of the National Library are a decent mitigation, but can't fulfil the full responsibilities of a large central library. 

The CBD is sorely lacking appropriately-sized public space for quiet study and intellectual pursuits. Christchurch's new central library offers a great example of how modern design can create innovative library spaces that draw people to the city and enhance the urban geography with creative and inspiring architecture. A new library for Wellington should focus strongly on being a library, rather than filling the gaps in many other services that people may wish to add to the mix. It should not deviate from its core mission to store and shelve as many books as is humanly possible, because a full library is a thing of beauty. But it can do this in creative ways, with flexible spaces. It should be designed to the highest environmental standards, and be better integrated into Civic Square than the current building.

While I know projected completion dates are highly speculative, there is little difference between Options C (high-level remediation) & Option D (new build on same site). Option D will produce a modern building that is fit for purpose at a cost tens of millions less than Option C. 

The current unusable library building was much-loved not for its architecture but because of the service and amenity it provided. People are fond of it, but it contains little of lasting architectural heritage. The palm motif is popular but is a curious choice to represent the fauna of the Wellington region. The undulating glass-front is a nice touch but is poorly integrated with the surrounding architecture. And the sweeping pathway around the building's north side looks nice but is seldom used and is therefore a waste of valuable space. A new building can start the design process anew and avoid the mistakes made in so many public buildings of the 80s and 90s - see also Te Papa, the lamentable design decisions for which were detailed compellingly in Gordon Campbell's 2011 investigation and interview with Ian Athfield, the library's designer.