Queen's University Belfast has obtained planning permission for a major new library building, despite opposition from nearby residents, who say it will be "grossly out of scale" with their Victorian houses.
In leaflets distributed throughout the area, Queen's said the £44 million (65 million) library project, which is due for completion in 2009, epitomised its "vision to be an international research-driven centre of excellence at the heart of the local community".
The floor area is 19,800 sq m (213,125 sq ft), making it the largest building project on campus. Much of the funding has been raised by the university's foundation, with donations ranging from £5 (7.30) to £10 million (€15 million).
Boston-based architects Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott, who designed the building with Belfast firm Robinson Patterson, have worked on more than 50 academic libraries, including those at Yale, Cornell and Harvard in the US.
The library will house 1.5 million volumes, with 2,000 reader places laid out around an atrium, which is designed to bring natural light into the building. It will also include a cafe, exhibition space, language laboratory and multi-media facilities.
The university says the library's "impressive" six-storey tower will make a "distinctive contribution" to Belfast's skyline, while the use of brick and sandstone will "harmonise" with the townscape.
It will replace what the university itself describes as "mainly undistinguished", flat-roofed 1970s buildings, which have "clearly exceeded their useful lives"and present a "drab and inappropriate appearance" at the entrance to the botanic gardens.
Also included in the scheme is a new building for the mathematics department, which is housed in one of the blocks scheduled to be demolished. This will be three storeys high, "thus respecting the scale of the adjacent residential buildings".
An "extensive tree-planting programme" is also planned, including a tree-lined approach to the botanic gardens, which the university says "will give character and form to the streetscape", while a landscaped plaza will provide space for public art.
However, the Rugby residents association said that while its members appreciated "the importance of a first-class library at Queen's", they were concerned about the impact of such a large-scale building in a predominantly residential area.
The residents asked Queen's to provide a computer-generated model so they could "fully understand the impact of the scale of the proposed complex on the urban landscape, their public park, homes and quality of life". The university declined to do so.
Residents of Rugby Road and College Park Avenue were particularly concerned that there would be "insufficient distance between the back of the complex and the rear of their houses", and asked why it was not possible to build it "further into Queen's property".
They said the area was a settled community of families. Botanic primary and nursery school is at one end of Rugby Road and there are two creches at the other end. A lane to the rear of the houses is a play area.
Other concerns related to the traffic and noise impact in an area which is gradually being "colonised" by Queen's, with staff members parking cars on nearby roads and houses being converted into student bed-sits.
Queen's said it responded to residents' concerns and studies were undertaken on the impact of light, noise and traffic. As a result, an additional investment of £1 million (1.5 million) would be made to mitigate the impact of the complex.
