ST MARYS BRANCH LIBRARY AND COMMUNITY OFFICES

1997 - 1998

This project is the adaptive reuse of a 1960s Commonwealth Bank building consisting of basement parking, ground floor banking chamber and strong room, and first floor office space. Purchased by Penrith City Council as part of a Main Street program aimed at revitalization of surburban shopping strips, the building lent itself well to the spatial requiirements of both library and community offices use.

In the long gun-barrel space, where the only natural light was at the street front, a sense of theatre is played out in the library fit-out, and is achieved through the use of colour, floating curved ceilings, and lighting design, particularly with coloured lighting in the children's area. As the bank vault held up the structure and was immovable, we drilled varying size holes through the wall and converted it to a children's reading area. Diameter of the holes had to be either to small or too large for heads to get stuck in them. 

As lead consultant our involvement in the project covered brief development, design, development application, tender documentation, and construction phase services.