This building brings together Albury’s library, museum, community centre, and IT facilities under one roof.
Completed in 2007, it is part of a broader masterplan that integrates cultural buildings with a new public square and landscape. With this project, ARM pioneered a shared-staff and management model for libraries and museums. The City of Albury sought an urban marker that would create a strong sense of place, and ARM responded with a masterplan positioning the Library/Museum as a beacon on its corner. The design also establishes connections through QEII Square to the neighbouring Albury Art Gallery and Albury Entertainment Centre.
Since opening, the library has seen a 50% increase in loans compared to its predecessor and gained 11,000 new members in its first year. Today, the Library/Museum welcomes around 220,000 visitors annually.
The architecture is deeply connected to its surroundings, incorporating familiar elements from the Albury region—the Murray River’s banks, levees, and trees, the river’s course, the civic precinct’s streetscape, and even details like the cornices of a railway carriage. The row-of-X’s façade motif references the giant webbing of the railway bridge over the Murray.
The building incorporates best-practice sustainability features (equivalent to 5-Star Green Star at the time of completion), including passive solar design, high-performance low-energy mechanical solutions, low-energy high-frequency lighting, and rainwater recycling.