The Victorian government has announced that construction is due to begin on the renovation of the State Library of Victoria in central Melbourne.
The redevelopment, designed by Architectus and Danish practice Schmidt Hammer Lassen, was unveiled in March and will see the library increase its publicly accessible spaces by 40 percent.
The project has received a $3.5-million donation from philanthropists Jane Hansen and Paul Little.
The donation will fund two parts of the refurbishment. The first of these will be a “technology-filled” space to be called Hansen Hall where the public can access library services. The donation will also be used to fund a “conversation quarter” equipped with powerful communications technology.
“The ‘conversation quarter’ embraces the future of learning and enables everyone, wherever they are, to engage with big questions and big ideas,” explained Little.
“It will stream live educational programming to children in regional and remote communities and connect Melbourne in real-time to organizations like NASA, the Bolshoi Ballet and the New York Public Library.”
The Swanston Street foyer.
Image: Courtesy Architectus
A focus of the project is the refurbishment of the historic Queen’s Reading Room. Opened in 1856, it is the library’s oldest reading room. The refurbishment will strip back paint to reveal the decorative colour scheme designed in 1860 by architect Joseph Reed and Edward La Trobe Bateman, which took inspiration from Owen Jones’s The Grammar of Ornament. It will also reveal the original skylights of the reading room, which were covered during a 1970s renovation.
The Queen’s Reading Room has been closed to the public since 2003. After its refurbishment, it will reopen as the Ian Potter Queen’s Hall, which will be used as reading room during the day and a space for special events at night.
The redevelopment will also include three new reading rooms, a new exhibition space to be named the Victoria Gallery and a new function room to be named the Isabella Fraser Room, after the SLV’s first female employee.
The Russell Street entrance, on the north side of the library, will be restored and reopened after 15 years and a new universal access entrance will be created on La Trobe Street.
The new Children’s Quarter.
Image: Courtesy Architectus
Architectus and Schmidt Hammer Lassen won a competitive tender for the project in April 2016. The other shortlisted consortia were ARM Architecture, supported by Bryce Raworth Heritage Architects, Bonacci Group and Norman Disney and Young Engineers; Conrad Gargett and Lyons Architecture, supported by Bonacci Group and Norman Disney and Young Engineers; and Hassell, supported by Purcell Heritage Architects and AECOM Engineers.
Architectus and Schmidt Hammer Lassen are supported by Andronas Conservation Architects, Irwinconsult, and Steensen Varming.
In addition to $60.4 million from the state government, the project has also received $10 million from the Ian Potter Foundation and $8 million from the John and Myriam Wylie Foundation.
The government has appointed Built to deliver the project. Completion of the refurbishment is expected in 2020.
Editor’s note: an earlier version of this article neglected to reflect the involvement of Andronas Conservation Architects, Irwinconsult, and Steensen Varming in the winning bid for the refurbishment.
