Uncovering the Central City Library

Fifty years ago, on 25 November 1971, the Central City Library opened its doors to the public for the first time. In celebration of this milestone, we bring you an updated and expanded version of this blog post from 2019, originally written as part of the 'Uncovering the Central Library' display.

The Auckland Public Library emerged in 1880, born out of the book stock of the Mechanics' Institute and a substantial donation by Sir George Grey who made it a condition of his gift that a public library be established. However, the somewhat modest Institute was not up to housing Grey’s extensive collection. In 1887 the present Art Gallery building was opened which, until 1971, housed both the library and the gallery. It is the present library building on Lorne Street which will be familiar to most people.

 

Auckland City Council. Showing the site for the new Auckland Public Library, 1963.
Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 580-7384.

The matter of replacing the dilapidated old City Library first reared its head in the early 1950s. City Librarian Robert (Bob) Duthie and City Engineer Arthur Dickson both made reports to the newly-elected councillors in 1953 about the dire state of repair of the old building on Wellesley Street. There had been no major alterations or renovations since its opening 66 years earlier, and the structure could barely contain the Library’s collections. Holding just 15,000 books when it opened in 1887, the City Library boasted 80,000 volumes in reference collections alone by 1953. Sharing the building with the Art Gallery and Old Colonists Museum also posed issues. The building was overcrowded, ageing, and constrained by the uneconomical divisions of space in its original construction.

Duthie and Dickson may have engaged in tactical exaggeration when they claimed to the councillors that the weight of these books threatened to collapse the upper floors of the library. Though this claim did not make into the written report, it had the intended effect of conveying urgency.

The councillors were sufficiently persuaded that the best remedy would be a new building. By the end of 1953 the Council formally adopted this as policy and chose the new site opposite the old building on the triangle formed by Lorne, Rutland, and Wellesley Streets. It was resolved to give the old building to the Art Gallery entirely once the Library vacated. The Old Colonists Museum was not so lucky, and closed permanently in 1956 to make more space for the Library.

Financial constraints and competing priorities meant further work on planning and constructing the new building did not take place until 1963, when an offer by the Auckland Savings Bank kick-started things again. The bank offered a special purpose low-rate loan as a gift to the City to facilitate the construction of the new library. The offer had the intended effect and work on designing the new library soon began.

Just a few weeks after the bank’s offer, the Council dispatched Bob Duthie and Deputy City Architect Ewen Martin Wainscott to study overseas developments to inform the new building’s design. The pair spent four months travelling across the United States, United Kingdom, and Scandinavia, observing contemporary library construction, planning, and management methods. Detailed planning of the new building began upon Duthie and Wainscott’s return to Auckland.

Image: Ewen Wainscott, Finished site layout plan Central Library stage 2, 1978,
Auckland Council Archives AKC 336/2623

Wainscott was a long-serving City Architect and later became the Chief City Architect in 1968. Described as “short, thick-set with an unruly mop of silvery hair, a blunt rough-edged voice and a taste for surprisingly vivid bow ties”, he designed many well-known Auckland buildings, including the Aotea Centre. His experience as a draftsman with E.A. and L.G. Williams of Napier may have influenced his leanings towards modernism. His designs were characteristically clean-lined and minimal but without the frills of the Art Deco style which dominates that city.

Construction of the new library’s first stage began in December 1967 with Australian firm James Wallace awarded the contract. The work took longer than planned, made difficult by the compact space of the site, challenging difference in elevation, and consecutive seasons of heavy rains. For instance, downpours in April 1968 collapsed a clay bank and sent one wall of the former Leighton’s driving school careening into the construction site; the rest of the building teetered on the edge before being rapidly demolished.

Image: Unknown photographer. Looking south west across the site of the new Central City Library, 19 March 1968. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 7-A5330

Wainscott’s design called for a building clad in marble; white Carrera for the outside and Travertine for the interior. This decision was partly influenced by the multi-stage construction necessitated by the ongoing leases on parts of the intended library site. Wainscott did not want to risk compromising the aesthetics of the design if the same materials were not available for the second stage. The staged construction also accounts for the somewhat unusual placement of the main entrance on the Lorne Street frontage. The Wellesley Street side of the building comprised the second stage and was added later.

Image: Auckland City Council. Looking southwest over the top ofthe Central City Library (under construction), 28 April 1970. Auckland Libraries HeritageImages, 580-19787.

Before alterations in the late 1990s, the building was characterised by an imposing “marble-curtain” exterior created by suspending the panels on a steel grill. The marble sheets contained no windows. Marble was also used to sheath internal columns along with Australian walnut panelling. Public floors were sandwiched between large administrative and book storage spaces. Below the public areas, a latticework support system between the basement stacks provided a unique air-flow system to protect books from damage by moisture and humidity.

John Daley. Looking north from Rutland Street along Lorne Street, showing the Central City Library. 1974. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, A13628.

The official opening of the new Central City Library was held at 10:30am on Thursday 25 November 1971, with the honour of formally opening the building given to Governor-General Sir Arthur Porritt. A booklet given to invitees remarked that the new library contained modern design flourishes such CO2 fire suppression in the Rare Books display room, Telex machines, and even vinyl coating on the staff cafeteria floor. Completion of an auditorium space located in the sub levels was also expected, but it did not become functional until completion of the second stage when it was built as a cinema. Many Aucklanders know this space as the premises of Academy Cinema, which first opened its doors in February 1983.

Wainscott described the building at the time as a “supermarket style” library: “we are getting away from the institution-type building with its no talking, no smoking atmosphere” he told the Auckland Star. Indeed, the library would open with a smoking room on the first floor. Former staff member David Verran recalls a patron hurtling down the escalator yelling “The library’s on fire!” It later emerged that a discarded cigarette had ignited a waste paper basket in the smoking room. For patrons seeking fresh air, the building originally had an open balcony running along the Lorne Street frontage on the first floor, now enclosed.

Image: Kevin Durrant. The issue desk on the ground floor of the Central Library, 1990s.

Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 669-99.

The new library was also unique in its division into six discrete subject departments, replacing the simple lending/reference split in the old building. The Sir George Grey collection now held pride of place in the plush blue-carpeted Rare Books Room on the second floor. Announced the Auckland Star: “the rare-book room is one of the library’s main attractions, as it is the first time many of the books have been displayed for some years because of a shortage of space in the old building.” The report went on, less encouragingly: “reference staff say they have had many enquiries from “granny hunters” or people trying to trace their ancestors.”

Miles G. Hargest. 'Running the Gauntlet', Suffragist Exhibition in the Rare Book Room, 1993. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 589-342.

Wainscott himself designed many of the original fixtures and fittings in the Central City Library building. On his design philosophy he has said “it is my belief one should endeavor to design buildings which are timeless: simple statements in planning which rely on massing form and contrast for their external expression. The use of solid and void, rough and smooth, light and shade.” (Home and building, Dec/Jan 1983).

Image: John Daley. Looking south from the corner of Lorne Street and Wellesley Street East

showing the Embassy theatre and Auckland City Library, 1974.

Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, A13626.

The second stage of the Central City Library building work included adding the remaining areas along Lorne and Wellesley Streets to complete the original design. Work needed to wait until the site became available once the lease of the Embassy Theatre expired during the 1970s. In true Auckland fashion, second stage construction was not authorised until late 1979 and the full building finally reopened as ultimately intended on 22 November 1982. This increased the total floor space of the building by almost 60,000 square feet in addition to the 100,000 square feet of existing space. Much of this space came in significant expansions of the Library basement. This rectified a slight issue of the new library, which had until then contained less storage than the old building.

Mark Gosper. Basement stack, 2019.

In addition to Academy Cinema, this expanded basement space was also selected after construction to rehome the Auckland Council Archives. The similarities in storage conditions for official records and rare books made it an ideal fit. Following necessary preparations, the Archives opened in the basement area in 1990 and took over the upper-basement space which once housed the newspaper room.

One interesting note of trivia is the Central City Library is slightly smaller than Wainscott’s early designs. An architectural model from May 1964 shows an additional section on the Wellesley and Rutland Street side of the building. You can see this on the left-side of the model in the image below this paragraph. Wainscott was forced to modify his design and cut this section off after it was discovered that regional roading authority plans would affect part of the site, reducing the total area available. Hence, the Central City Library bears a more trapezoidal shape from above compared to the triangular footprint envisioned in the 1964 model. Mayoral Drive, a later addition to the inner-city, now runs through the area where this part of the building would have gone.

Image: Auckland City Council. Architectural model of the plannednew Auckland Public Library, 1964. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections,580-10199.

The Central City Library has undergone several renovations and reorganisations over its decades of service. The 1990s saw alterations to the second floor and the construction of the treasured Whare Wānanga. In 2007, the cafe was added and the first floor balcony enclosed to extend the floor space. More recently, the interior spaces were substantially refurbished in 2017.

The work is still not done. Not least, as regular Central Library visitors will know, the remediation of the library’s roof is underway to keep the building waterproof and allow us to welcome many visitors to come. To learn more and hear from several Central City Library staff, tune in to 'Uncovered' -- our podcast series about the hidden world and history of the Central City Library.

Listen to the track here.

After 50 years, it is safe to say there are still stories yet to be told about the Central City Library.

 
Authors: Mark, Research Central (21 June 2019). Expanded on 25 November 2021 by Liam (Research Central) and Vicky (Council Archives).

References

Auckland Council Archives – “Auckland City Libraries” 1880-

Auckland Star 29 June 1971, 22 January 1972. From: Library Scrapbook.

Colgan, Wynne, The Govenor’s Gift: The Auckland Public Library 1880-1980, 1980.

Home and building, Dec/Jan 1983.

Verran, David, Another Chapter, 2009.