Take a tour of the three specialist, purpose-designed and soon to be closed University of Auckland libraries, led by architect and NZIA fellow Graeme Burgess.

‘There is the modest 1960s structure that expanded and grew concrete fins, the open-plan pagoda designed in the 1970s, and the flamboyant piano of the 1980s that rocked Symonds Street. In these places, the fertile histories of local library building are discoverable, and this is worth defending. The cumulative value of the Fine Arts, Architecture and Planning, and Music and Dance libraries is immense.’

Sebastian Clarke in Ex Libris: Regarding Three Libraries.

From brutalism to post-modernism, the tour will have you exploring the Fine Arts Library (20 Whitaker Pl), originally built in 1963-1976 by Massey Beatson Rix-Trott Carter and Co, the Architecture and Planning Library (22 Symonds Street) designed by Kingston Reynolds Thom & Allardice Limited which opened in 1982 as well as the Music and Dance Library (6 Symonds Street) which was designed in 1986 by Manning-Mitchell.

Educational, insightful and a rare privilege, these tours will delight lovers of design and heritage, as well as past and present students of creative disciplines.

A reasonable amount of mobility is required for this tour, and comfortable walking shoes are recommended. Places are limited and a copy of Ex Libris: Regarding Three Libraries is included in the $20 booking fee.

Please note that the tour commences from the Fine Arts Library at 12pm.

Ex Libris, Architecture and Planning Library, 2018. Image: Samuel Hartnett.