Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Library look revealed
A new library and art gallery is set to sculpt a ‘‘gateway’’ into Blenheim, and now design plans show what this will look like.
Eleven years after it was first mooted, the Marlborough District Council has made public the drawing plans behind the $20 million build, with concept design images due later this month.
Stepping into the ground floor from High St, visitors would be met with a cafe, a reception area, two meeting rooms, several ‘‘special collections’’, and a climate-controlled exhibition gallery.
On the second floor is the library, plus four meeting rooms, a children’s area, and a flexible event space with a skylight above. This level would jut over the ground floor, creating a verandah.
Crowning the build was a ‘‘plant room’’ and an external plant deck. A council spokeswoman said it would provide services to the building, like air conditioning and electric power distribution.
The designs were a ‘‘work in progress’’, and revealed under the resource consent application the council lodged with itself last month. It thought its consent application should not go out for public consultation, as the building would provide wide benefits to the community, and only had minor non-compliance issues.
Parts of the second storey came over the street, which meant it did not comply with the council’s own verandah requirements, as put down in the Wairau Awatere Resource Management Plan.
But this was allowable, as it would shelter foot traffic, it said.
Marlborough Mayor John Leggett was impressed by the ‘‘clever designs’’, which made the ‘‘lifetime building’’ look ‘‘spectacular’’.
The building would overlook the Wither Hills and Taylor River, which both served as inspiration for its design, he said.
‘‘It’s a Marlborough building we can be proud of,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s a bleak time economywise, and this is a project that will create employment and excitement through the recovery phase.’’
He was unsure when construction on the building would start.
The build would be located on the old Liquorland and Warehouse Stationery sites, which had to be dug up and binned after the council found parts had unsafe levels of fuel oils and lead.
There would be two council car parks beside the new building.
The project was one of 16 put forward for the Government’s ‘shovel ready’ initiative which, if successful, would take part of the bill off ratepayers. It would still go ahead if unsuccessful.
The council would cover $15m of the project’s $20m total, including $1.6m for some new furniture and equipment, and about $18,000 to investigate and remove the contaminated soil.
The Millennium Art Gallery Foundation Trust would pay the rest.
Trust chairman Richard Wilson said it had received a ‘‘substantial sum’’ from a benefactor, and would contract a professional consultancy organisation to raise the remaining amount.
‘‘... the building will be a standout for locals and State Highway 1 users passing through the town and will be a tremendous architectural statement benefiting all of Marlborough,’’ he said.
Millennium Public Art Gallery director Cressida Bishop said the designs allowed for shared spaces between the library and art gallery, where the two could collaborate together, like on holiday programmes.
‘‘Every metre has been considered,’’ she said.
District libraries manager Glenn Webster said staff were ‘‘excited’’ with the designs they had seen and looked forward to moving in.
The $20m project was first mooted in 2009, but later delayed by water projects, land ownership hurdles and a slower than expected design stage. The final plot of land was bought last October, with buildings demolished earlier this year.