This week the Courier was given an exclusive tour of the buzzing construction site adjacent to Stockland Baldivis Shopping Centre.
Cranes were on site at the $11.5 million project on Tuesday, putting the finishing touches on the library’s span of intricate steelworks, which have been designed to mimic a tree canopy spanning the breadth of the building’s roof.
Builder PACT Construction took possession of the site in March 2013 and site works are expected to continue until mid-April of 2014, slightly behind the original completion date of late March 2014.
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READ NOWThe building will then be handed over to the City of Rockingham for its internal fit-out before a planned opening in July 2014.
The library is expected to house around 49,000 items within a few years of its opening date, and contains not only the library floor and staff offices but several areas for community child health nurses to operate from. It is built with passive solar principles, power-saving underfloor air conditioning and a 30kW solar power system.
The library will also have radio-frequency identification technology to enable borrowers to check items out quickly and easily. Furnishing the new facility is expected to cost in the region of $1.2 million.
Adjacent to the library and linked by an undercover walkway is a function room, storage facility and kitchen to service up to 200 people, and a two-storey community centre, which will feature indoor and enclosed outdoor children’s play areas, toilets, meeting rooms and an arts and crafts area.
Activating the area between the library, The Chase and a new outdoor shopping precinct has been a focus of the project, and a paved and landscaped walkway which may be used for events and markets will be installed, as well as a small amphitheatre area.
Windows on the side of the function room will be able to have images and video projected onto them and visible from the walkway, to further activate the space.
City of Rockingham staff member Caroline Jones will be library manager.