Australia: Architects Announced For State Library of Victoria Redevelopment and More Government Funding

From the State Library of Victoria:

Multi-award winning Australasian design firm Architectus will join forces with Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, one of Scandinavia’s most recognised architectural practices, to transform the iconic building.
Architectus is known for its delivery of complex and technically challenging projects, receiving more than 100 industry awards for work across education, public, commercial, infrastructure and transport projects.
Their projects include the 6-star Greenstar Sydney office tower 1 Bligh St, and collaborations with the Art Gallery of NSW’s Sydney Modern with SANAA and the Queens Bridge Tower in Melbourne with Wilkinson Eyre.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects is a global leader in contemporary library design, with projects including Scandinavia’s largest public library, the Dokk1 Urban Mediaspace, Halifax Central Library, Sir Duncan Rice Library at Aberdeen University and the extension to the Royal Library in Copenhagen.
Architectus + Schmidt Hammer Lassen recently collaborated to design the Christchurch New Central Library, which is due for completion in 2018.
Architectus + Schmidt Hammer Lassen supported by Andronas Conservation Architects, Irwin Consult and Steensen Varming Engineers will design all elements of the Vision 2020 redevelopment.
Design concepts for the Vision 2020 project will be released later this year with construction due to begin in 2017 and will be complete in 2020.
In other State Library of Victoria News…

The Victorian government has increased the Library’s funding by $5 million per year to allow the Library to continue to support the social, creative, educational and economic aspirations of the Victorian community.
Minister Foley also announced the full funding of a second state-of-the-art off-site storage facility in Ballarat as part of Creative Victoria’s $23 million Collection Storage Victoria Project. This is a critical second stage of the Library’s long term storage plan which currently sees over 50% of the collection stored off-site in Ballarat. The new facility will ensure the Library can safely accommodate its ever-expanding collection and continue to make it readily accessible to Library users.
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The State Library Victoria is Australia’s oldest free public library and the nation’s busiest with nearly 1.8 million visitors a year – more than the British Library and the Library of Congress in Washington.
In 2015 the Victorian government committed $55.4 million towards the Library’s $83.1 million redevelopment, Vision 2020. The five year project combines government and philanthropic funding to refurbish and renew Library spaces, create new digital and entrepreneurship centres and an e-Town Hall initiative to connect regional public libraries throughout Victoria.

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