Work to transform Finglas Village's former An Post sorting office into its new library is set to begin this week.
The new library will call Seamus Ennis Road its home as the former sorting office building is "upcycled" to create the new community space. The building will be retrofitted to meet contemporary thermal performance requirements and specific interventions have been made to optimise daylight and space to provide a sense of well-being and a vibrant place for the community.
The new library is going to replace the current one which was opened in 1980 and is in the Finglas Village Centre. Although its popular with the community, it is need of a new location to offer more services to the community.
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It's expected to open in Summer 2023 and will provide circa 400 sqm of public space with capacity on site for further development of the facilities. Also the front lawn will be reconfigured to provide a pocket park with a new seating hub and a gently sloped pathway set in landscaped grounds.
Lord Mayor of Dublin, Caroline Conroy said: “I am delighted to mark the start of the works on the new public library for Finglas. Libraries are vital public spaces at the heart of their communities.
"While the existing library in Finglas village is a much loved and well used local resource, this new library will be a modern, universally accessible community space, and I look forward to seeing the exciting new services that the library service will deliver for the people of Finglas. I am pleased to see that the project approach has been to retain and upcycle an existing, vacant building instead of knocking it down and re-building, taking a low energy approach and contributing to Dublin City’s sustainability objectives.”
Dublin City Librarian, Mairead Owens said: “Delivering a new community library for the people of Finglas is a long standing ambition for the city. This project will deliver on that ambition, providing much needed, free, open and universally accessible space for all. The new library should also contribute positively to the regeneration strategy for Finglas village in a way that will assist the transformation of the centre of Finglas through the creation of a strong civic focal point for the area.”
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