Public forks out more for library
The public will fork out millions of dollars more than once thought to build Christchurch’s new central library, partly due to ‘‘expanded expectations’’ for the new facility.
The Christchurch City Council’s contributions to the building – which is nearing completion on the corner of Cathedral Square and Gloucester St – have increased by millions of dollars over the past five years. It puts some of the increased spend down to taking inspiration from libraries in northern Europe, Canada and the United States.
Meanwhile, the opening of the library, officially named Tu¯ ranga, has been delayed due to problems getting materials from overseas.
Figures supplied by the Crown and council this week suggest the total spend will be just less than
$100 million, about $10m more than the 2013 forecast of $89.36m.
The council’s head of vertical capital delivery and professional services, Liam Nolan, said its original estimated contribution to the library was $60m. The 2013 projection, outlined in the Crown-council cost-sharing agreement (CSA), did not include the cost of decontaminating and backfilling the site.
‘‘This was later increased to
$75m to meet the expanded expectations of the project, and then to $85m when the council agreed to underwrite the required philanthropic capital,’’ Nolan said.
‘‘Expanded expectations’’, Nolan said, came about after the project requirements were compared to similar facilities, which ‘‘identified a need for more funding’’.
‘‘The council, together with its architectural partners, looked closely at best-practice international examples of modern public libraries in the US, Canada and Northern Europe, including
Dokk1, Denmark; Halifax Central Library, Nova Scotia; the Library of Birmingham, England; and the Seattle Central Library,’’ he said.
As a result, increased floor space was introduced to ‘‘maximise the amount of publicly available and multi-purpose space within the building’’.
Sums of $5.5m and $2.2m were added to the council contribution to cover the cost of the land and land remediation, bringing its budget to $92.7m, Nolan said.
Anne Shaw, director the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Greater Christchurch Group, said the Crown had contributed $12.7m. The money had gone into land acquisitions and demolitions for the new library site.
‘‘In a separate transaction, the council reimbursed the Crown $5.5m – being the amount the Crown paid for the old central library land, now part of the Christchurch convention centre precinct,’’ Shaw said.
The library had been scheduled to open in mid-2018, but Nolan said it would now open in the third quarter of this year.
‘‘The duration of the construction works has been extended by issues affecting the supply of some of the materials that had to be procured from overseas,’’ he said.
‘‘In addition, the council has chosen to incorporate additional external street works into the scope of the project which have, in turn, also extended the duration of the construction works.
‘‘These will involve the upgrading of sections of Gloucester and Colombo streets, and the repair of sections of the north-eastern corner of Cathedral Square.’’
Shaw clarified why the Crown had not contributed $19.363m to the library project, which was its earmarked contribution in the CSA.
‘‘Like any cost estimates in the CSA, the figure of $19.363m was an estimate, as at mid-2013, of how much it would cost for the Crown to purchase the land,’’ Shaw said.
‘‘However, being subject to ongoing negotiations, in the end the actual costs for land acquisition were less.’’
The council, as the lead organisation on the project, made decisions independently from the Crown on what facilities would be built.
The Crown had ‘‘no responsibility for the cost of delivering those facilities’’, Shaw said.
‘‘Each project included in the CSA agreed in July 2013 outlined responsibilities for funding and delivering the projects, and estimates of costs associated with those responsibilities.
‘‘These estimates were almost always subject to further work or negotiation, and there has been variation across all the projects in the actual costs of land acquisition, project delivery and other responsibilities.
‘‘Under the CSA in relation to the central library, the Christchurch City Council leads the project and is responsible for delivering the facilities, while the Crown is responsible for providing land.
‘‘The Crown has met its obligations under the CSA by providing the land for the project,’’ she said.
‘‘The duration of the construction works has been extended by issues affecting the supply of some of the materials that had to be procured from overseas.’’
Anne Shaw, director the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Greater Christchurch Group