Construction of the government’s new central library, not including the building’s internal decoration, will cost between 377.78 million patacas and 440.31 million patacas, according to calculations based on its announcements released yesterday and previously.
The new central library is being built on the site where the long-defunct Hotel Estoril once stood, opposite Praça do Tap Seac.
The project is being caried out in two phases. The first phase got off the ground in June last year, comprising the demolition of the former Hotel Estoril, and the new library building’s pile foundation and basement work.
The new library building’s basement work is now being carried out after the completion of its pile foundation work early this year and the demolition of the derelict Hotel Estoril on the site last year.
The ongoing first phase is now scheduled to be completed in December this year.
The project’s first phase is currently being carried out by Ming Shun Construction and Property Investment Limited for a price tag of 69.78 million patacas.
After the first phase’s completion, the library project’s second phase, namely superstructure work, will start, for which the government launched a public tender in late August. Potential bidders were required to submit their quotations for the central library project’s superstructure work by Wednesday, October 8.
A total of 30 construction companies had submitted their bids for the superstructure work, which were unsealed by Public Works Bureau (DSOP) officials yesterday. All bids were accepted.
A statement by the bureau yesterday announced that the quotations for the library project’s superstructure work proposed by the 30 bidders range from 308 million patacas to 370.53 million patacas.
Consequently, together with the ongoing 69.78-million-patacas first phase, the construction of the new central library will cost between 377.78 million patacas and 440.31 million patacas in total.
Superstructure slated to be completed in 2027 Q4
Yesterday’s statement underlined that after the ongoing basement work’s scheduled completion in December this year, the superstructure work will then start.
The Public Works Bureau also said yesterday that the central library’s superstructure work is now expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2027, after which the library building will be transferred to the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), which will then carry out the building’s internal decoration and install equipment and facilities, as well as supply the new library with books.
The public tender has set a maximum period of 620 working days for the winning bidder to complete the central library’s superstructure.
The Public Works Bureau also announced on its website yesterday that one of the 30 bidders proposes a construction period of 558 working days for the superstructure, while the construction periods for the superstructure proposed by the other 29 bidders are either 589 or 590 working days.
The bureau also updated details of the central library project on its website yesterday.
According to the DSOP website, the site where the new central library will be located, i.e., the plot where the now-defunct Hotel Estoril once stood, covers 2,960 square metres.
10 times size of current central library
The future central library, according to the updated details, will have four storeys, from the ground floor to the third floor, plus two basement floors to be used for closed stacks and back of house (BOH) areas. The new library will have a gross floor area of 13,800 square metres, about 10 times the size of the current central library, which is housed in a listed building in Praça do Tap Seac, just across the square from the new library.
The new central library will include facilities such as several auditoriums, newspaper and magazine reading areas, an adults’ library, a children’s library, a youth library, meeting rooms, and multimedia spaces, according to the DSOP website.
The government decided in 2020 to redevelop the long-abandoned Hotel Estoril opposite Praça do Tap Seac into the city’s new central library. The government then invited four architectural design teams – from Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Switzerland – to submit concept designs for the project, after which the government announced in 2021 that it had chosen the concept design from the Netherlands’ Mecanoo team for the central library project.
The Dutch team’s concept design proposed to relocate the mosaic mural on the old Hotel Estoril’s façade to the future library building’s atrium, while the other three teams all proposed to keep it on the future library’s façade.
When announcing its new central library project on the former Hotel Estoril plot in 2020, the government was aiming to complete the project in 2024 at the earliest.
The government said in 2020 that the library project was preliminarily estimated to cost 500 million patacas.
This artist’s rendition released by the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) on its website yesterday shows the future central library’s atrium with the mosaic mural relocated from old Hotel Estoril’s façade.
Pedestrians walk across a zebra crossing on Avenida de Sidónio Pais outside the construction site of the ongoing new central library project yesterday. – Photo: Tony Wong
