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The latest images of how Ōrewa Library will look after nine months of refurbishment and repairs were unveiled by Auckland Council recently.
The existing building in Moana Avenue is almost 30 years old, has a leaking roof and the cramped interior space is no longer fit for purpose considering it is the seventh most-visited of Auckland’s 56 libraries.
Last year Council began moving forward in earnest with a project to improve and future proof the library (HM October 16, 2023).
As an upgrade was called for, it was seen as an opportunity to go one step further and build a new mezzanine floor, which will provide a flexible meeting space including for the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board.
The work is budgeted to cost $3.7 million, funded by the local board.
Tenders closed on February 14 and are being evaluated.
The work will see the library closed for around nine months and its services and resources will be relocated to Ōrewa Community Centre. At this stage, it is anticipated that this will happen soon after the strengthening and refurbishment work currently underway on the community centre is complete – around the end of next month.
Although the local board has yet to see detailed designs for the library, chair Gary Brown says an update is being brought to a workshop next month.
He says key concerns that the board has passed onto the Council team working on the project are the need for good acoustics in any room to be used for local board meetings, because the sessions are available for people to attend online as well as in person.
They also want to ensure the space is flexible enough for multiple use by various community organisations.
Although the local board is positive about the long overdue library improvements, Brown says his preference was always to have kept the former Council building at 50 Centreway Road and to have, instead, sold the library building, which has a high-value town centre location. He says the proceeds could have then been used to set up the library in the Centreway Road building, while retaining Council offices, space for Emergency Management and also commercial space to lease. Auckland Council sold its 50 Centreway Road building to Sustainable Property Investments in 2020 and Council vacated it last year. The site has been re-branded Nexus Business Park, offering commercial space for lease.
