Anyone keenly studying the fine print of the Council's 2012-13 Annual Plan will have spotted the inclusion of the Halswell Library and a Suburban Community Centre for the area in the Capital Projects budget. As Council staff reach for projections data and other handy statistics, poising their coloured pens in mid-air, we invite you to join us. Help us imagine the Halswell of the future, and help us plan and design for the needs of the community in these coming years of growth and rapid change - socially, environmentally and structurally.
Who will make up the Halswell community in 5, 10, 20 and 30 years time? What will their lifestyle be like? What will their social, recreational and work activities involve? What kinds of facilities and services will be needed to support these activities? And what do we want these to look and feel like?
Your input into what Halswell people want from a library and community centre, now and in the future, is vital to ensure this facility meets community needs for current generations and those to come. So, come join us: over August we'll be gathering initial input into this project.
The Halswell Liaison Group is hosting a Community Workshop from noon-1.15pm on Wednesday 8 August at the Halswell Baptist Church in Balcairn St (changed from what was advertised in the newsletter). It would be great to see you there.
If you can't make it to this, you can pop along to another Community Workshop from 6.30pm-8.30pm on Wednesday 22 August at Oaklands School Music Room, Cunningham Place, or a Family Fun and Drop-In from 1pm-4pm on Sunday 26 August at St Luke's Union Church, 436 Halswell Road. Also, keep your eyes open for an online survey that will be doing the rounds.
Or: why not pop in and have a chat to your friendly local librarians at the Halswell Library who are also very excited about this project and eager to hear your ideas?
How about hosting your own conversation with your whanau/family, club, association, group, business, organisation or neighbourhood and letting us know what you think? I'm currently putting together a sheet of ideas, including questions and activities, and am very happy to help you out. Keep an eye out for this and drop me a line at sharon.moreham@ccc.govt.nz or call me on 941-6451 or 358-3535 with any questions or suggestions. Both myself and the Libraries staff are available for visits if this would be helpful.
But here, on this blog is a perfect place to get the conversation started. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas...
Warm wishes, Sharon
Who will make up the Halswell community in 5, 10, 20 and 30 years time? What will their lifestyle be like? What will their social, recreational and work activities involve? What kinds of facilities and services will be needed to support these activities? And what do we want these to look and feel like?
Your input into what Halswell people want from a library and community centre, now and in the future, is vital to ensure this facility meets community needs for current generations and those to come. So, come join us: over August we'll be gathering initial input into this project.
The Halswell Liaison Group is hosting a Community Workshop from noon-1.15pm on Wednesday 8 August at the Halswell Baptist Church in Balcairn St (changed from what was advertised in the newsletter). It would be great to see you there.
If you can't make it to this, you can pop along to another Community Workshop from 6.30pm-8.30pm on Wednesday 22 August at Oaklands School Music Room, Cunningham Place, or a Family Fun and Drop-In from 1pm-4pm on Sunday 26 August at St Luke's Union Church, 436 Halswell Road. Also, keep your eyes open for an online survey that will be doing the rounds.
Or: why not pop in and have a chat to your friendly local librarians at the Halswell Library who are also very excited about this project and eager to hear your ideas?
How about hosting your own conversation with your whanau/family, club, association, group, business, organisation or neighbourhood and letting us know what you think? I'm currently putting together a sheet of ideas, including questions and activities, and am very happy to help you out. Keep an eye out for this and drop me a line at sharon.moreham@ccc.govt.nz or call me on 941-6451 or 358-3535 with any questions or suggestions. Both myself and the Libraries staff are available for visits if this would be helpful.
But here, on this blog is a perfect place to get the conversation started. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas...
Warm wishes, Sharon
This is a fantastic opportunity for Halswell. I live near the Beckenham library/ service centre, and what a fantastic community asset it has been (and, correspondingly, how sad it is that it has had to close recently). I would say that the impact of its striking design - both architecturally and environmentally - can't be underestimated in the importance of its success - it has just become a place where people want to be. I think the integrity of the design on so many levels has had an impact on that. People like to be in a space that is both beautiful and doing its best to limit our impacts on the natural environment.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing Halswell take their opportunity for a community space even further and to hopefully learning from your wonderful leadership and insights to help with rebuilding what we have here.
Hey, thanks for sharing your experience of South Library and Service Centre! It's a great starting point for everyone in Halswell to think about what they want from their new integrated library and community facility. How do you want it to look and feel? What features are important for you to be able to do what you want to do - for work? for study? for play?
DeleteGreat to hear this Rich - you have my sympathy re the shutting of the City South Library - it was one of my favourite haunts. It's that library that many of us in Halswell have in mind when we imagine our new library although I think we may get something even better if we give it some good thought now.
ReplyDeleteGreat point! How could South Library and Service Centre been even better?
DeleteHi Sharon
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a pretty exciting opportunity for Halswell. I agree with Rich that the Beckenham library/service centre seemed like a pretty good model to start from. That library managed to create a social space and the traditional library feel within the same large room; in the more traditional library setting you weren't really supposed to talk. It would be good if the new Halswell library combined those in a similar way.
The reason the Beckenham library was so popular must have been because it included a cafe...
Phil N
Thanks Phil! I wonder what aspects in particular you think worked well to create that mix you describe in the one big room at South Library/Service Centre? The cafe certainly helped! What feel do you want at the Halswell facility? And what role to you want it to play in the community? What design aspects do you think would support that?
DeleteHey Sharon
ReplyDeleteIt would be great to see office space for community workers. I'm ever hopeful of having a community organisation here that has a paid coordinator who can help keep our website interesting, and provide support and energy for community initiatives. I'd also really like to see some facilities suitable for young people. We also will need some good visible "trip over" community noticeboard space where we can advertise community events. Personally too, I"d really want to see a cafe.
Thanks for the opportunity to contribute!
Chrys
Thanks for your great ideas Chrys! Your description sounds like you have a vision of the centre being a vibrant hub that supports a strong and connected community life - yes? And it would be great to hear from everyone (especially young people!)what would make the place interesting, useful and meaningful to young people...
DeleteWhy do people keep calling South Library "Beckenham"?!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, would it possible to have the service centre open hours matching the library hours? It's very frustrating going to pay your rates and dog rego only to find that the service centre staff have gone home at 4:55pm. Not like the hard working library staff :)
Thanks! It's really good to hear how the centre can better meet people's needs and improve customer service in today's busy lifestyles...
DeleteThat's because it's in Beckenham and that's where I live! :-) Even if this one is called the Southwest Service Centre (I hope not!), everyone would still call it the Halswell Library.
DeleteHalswell can be a very lucky community, they can have a new gathering point, place to read, to play acts on stage having all sorts of events from the youngest of two till hundred and two. If you have travelled to Europe or better in the Mediterranean countries
ReplyDeletethe people go to there PLATIES (squares) the meeting points of all their activities around the life of there city-village-neighbourhood. The most significant buildings with their own local character, monuments, shops and playgrounds for all.
SO DOES HALSWELL FEEL LUCKY ?
Thanks Antonis! Your vision of a vibrant hub and heart of the community builds on Chrys' vision. What kinds of features does the building and it's surrounds need to have to enable all these activities to take place? What does everyone think?
DeleteHi Antonis - the town square concept is exactly what I have been thinking about - I have a vision of people sitting and chatting in the sun - and in particular older people reminiscing about the Halswell of their childhood.
Deletefrom Joyce Fleming (formerly Turner)
ReplyDeleteReading about the future of the Halswell Library is, for me, a dream come true. This library also has an exceptionally interesting history which has been recorded via scrapbooks and other material kept, I believe, in the stackroom of the current building. No room to detail here except for one thing which is priority. The seven vintage chairs which are a unique feature of the Halswell Library are of local significance. When in 1975 I took the position (under the Paparua CC admin.) of Librarian-in-charge, I was asked by the local volunteers to make sure that the chairs should never be removed from the Halswell library.
Thank you Joyce! It's wonderful to hear of your excitement and the rich history of library services in Halswell. Those chairs certainly seem to be a significant community treasure and one people want to keep as a feature in the new library in some way.
Delete