This option would involve demolishing the existing building to put a new one on the same site. The new building would be designed to the highest level of seismic safety and resilience ensuring peoples safety and full service continuity after an earthquake. A new build provides the greatest opportunity to design the space as a library and community space for the long term.

Key elements of this option are:

• High level of seismic safety and resilience
• Designed to incorporate best practice sustainability and accessibility standards and respond to long-term climate change concerns
• Opportunity to create different connections to Te Ngākau Civic Precinct and surrounding areas
• Opportunity to reimagine and design a multipurpose Central Library and civic and community facility for current and future users.

At a glance
Cost	$156.5m - $160.7m
Increase for Average Residential Ratepayer each of 64 years of building life	$50.60-$52.60pa
Indicative opening date	November 2025

Advantages	Disadvantages
High resilience means minimal risk of future building closures	Does not retain the existing building and would need to resolve the heritage status of precinct in the future building and the potential future heritage scheduling by Heritage New Zealand (may also impact on timeframe)
Opportunity to fully optimise the design to meet future library service requirements	Negative impact on sustainability objectives due to demolition
Could be built to high sustainability standards	New build options have the longest timeframes to the library re-opening
Lower cost than high-level remediation option
Designed to address and mitigate future climate change impacts
Opportunity to align with best practice accessibility standards
Significant opportunities for partnerships
New and enhanced connections to Te Ngākau Civic Precinct

The new build estimates do not include base isolation as the desired level of building resilience can be achieved in a new build without it. However if the decision was made to base isolate a new building the additional cost would not be significant.

The cost estimates for the new build option do include estimated demolition and removal costs.

Above: Young adults collection at Johnsonville Library in Waitohi

Photograph: Matt Paterson

Above image: Photography exhibition by John B Turner, at Johnsonville Library in Waitohi

Photograph: Matt Paterson