John Edgar says the New Lynn Library is a great community building. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Artist John Edgar praises New Lynn's new library in a Herald series in which prominent Aucklanders nominate their favourite buildings built since 2000.
The thing I really love about the library is that it is a building for the community.
It is not an ivory tower and it is not a white elephant. It is one of the best-used libraries in Waitakere. The reason is they have got the community aspect right on
so many levels.
It sits alongside the war memorial for the 16 soldiers from New Lynn who died in World War I, and those connections are extremely important.
Architecturally, I like the building because it is simple.
It is not just a library. It houses the Citizens Advice Bureau and upstairs it has an IT learning centre and a meeting room. Running between the library and the CAB is a wall of artefacts from the clay industry of West Auckland.
The most difficult job for the architects was to bring in this community aspect. Waitakere City has tried to do that in all its buildings in the past 15 years.
In this case, it had lead artist Iona Mathieson, who did the birds flying in the doorway.
The two big precast concrete relief motif walls on the outside were designed by Sue Bridges with input from the Waitakere City artsproject manager, Mark Osborne.
Other West Auckland artists involved were Te Warena Taua, who designed an inside wall in a chevron pattern, and Graeme Gash, who did the sand-blasted entranceway. Stained- glass windows are by Danny Rollinson and Philippa Crane.
It is not precious artwork. It is actually a situation that says it is a community building with community artwork.
THE SCULPTOR
John Edgar has been president for 14 years of the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society, which acts as a guardian for an area of more than 30,000ha - one of the largest remnants of coastal forest in the North Island.
In his time as president, more than 1000ha has been added to the reserve, the ranges have secured permanent protection and the society has become involved in the fight against a disease that is killing kauri trees.
Edgar is an acclaimed sculptor, working predominantly in natural stone to create abstract compositions.
He was commissioned by Waitakere City to make two works for the new civic centre in Henderson.
Edgar lives and works in Karekare with his partner, the glass artist Ann Robinson.
HE NOMINATES
* John Edgar has nominated the New Lynn War Memorial Library in Waitakere City, designed by Craig Craig & Moller and opened in 2005.
* Using steel, concrete and block-work construction, the two-storey building was designed under the Waitakere City Better Building Code, employing sustainable techniques to achieve an outcome that fitted with the city's eco-friendly policy.
* The library won an Institute of Architects award in 2006.
