Heritage assessment, conservation and development of the complex

Lovell Chen has contributed to successive strategic plan processes for the State Library, the fundamental objective of each being to enable the library to respond to the rapidly evolving requirements of delivering major cultural services to the public. The plans have provided a framework for the development and delivery of immediate and longer term projects, identifying priority actions and strategic opportunities in the use of the library’s building resources and spaces.

In 2013, in association with Jackson Architecture, we completed the Building Redevelopment Vision and Masterplan, which presented five major projects to advance the goals established in the strategic thinking. Each project was developed through further planning and conceptual design work sufficient to establish that each could be delivered from a physical, functional, programme and heritage perspective.

The exterior of the dome drum is cement stucco, originally finished with a bright gold-yellow (Copperas) render, remnants of which were discovered during the project.
Trials of washcoating systems were made using different foms of liquid Copperas and liquid cement, raising various issues, such as the nature of the originally intended opacity and the need to mask render patch repairs. The public profile of the building and the potential impact of a significant colour change was also considered.

The site posed considerable challenges in the complexity and scale of the buildings, which are difficult to access. In addition, the dome has little spare structural capacity, making survey and repair works challenging. It was also a requirement that the works did not interrupt the ongoing operations of the buildings. A lightweight scaffolding system suspended from the drum was used to access the Reading Room exterior.