By NOEL MURPHY
THE views from the giant truncated dome rising above Geelong’s Johnstone Park are as striking as the images it presents itself.
Brutalist architecture from the 1970s, colonial edifices dating to the Gold Rush and the verdant canopy of the park sit wonderfully with views across CBD rooftops and streets and the broad vista of Corio Bay.
ARM Architecture’s soaring design for the $45 million building incorporates everything from massive custom-designed hexagonal panelling across its geodesic shape to secreted solar panelling and super-speed wi-fi.
Galleries, conference, study and meeting spaces, storage, kids’ areas, function rooms, a café, a feature reading wall and expanses of glass panelling have been cleverly integrated into a design that ARM’s Wayne Sanderson said was aimed at linking Johnstone Park with the spaces inside.
Stretching over 6000 square metres, the library and heritage centre is now 75 per cent complete and expected to open before the year’s end. It will hold 120,000 print and multimedia collection items.
Other features include: a unique panelled ceiling and vivid blue floor in the conference centre; a children’s exploration and discovery zone with a terrace deck; and a large space shared between Geelong’s library and gallery.
Mayor Darryn Lyons was looking forward to the centre’s public opening.
“The Geelong Library and Heritage Centre is a wonderful facility,” he said.
“Sitting in the heart of our arts precinct, it will become a tourism attraction and major learning hub.”
Cr Lyons said the centre had created 100 jobs during the construciton phase and would add 17 more long-term, “which is great news.”
Geelong Regional Library Corporation chair Andy Richards said the centre would be a “world-class facility”.
“Visitors will enjoy a vibrant and inspiring space full of events, technology and specialist collections all presented by highly qualified and expert staff,” he said.
“We’re all looking forward to blowing away any preconceptions which may still exist about what a library is.”
