A little over a year ago our shop at State Library Victoria moved into the refurbished Baldwin Spencer room on Russell Street. When I was a child that room was the entrance to the Museum and, if I remember rightly, housed the stuffed hide of legendary racehorse Phar Lap. In its new colours, Baldwin Spencer certainly doesn’t have any skeletons in its closet and is now, surely, one of Melbourne’s grandest public spaces. The refurbishment was the first stage in an $88 million redevelopment of public spaces within the library which was undertaken with a combination of a State Government grant and philanthropic contributions. The final stages of the redevelopment elsewhere in the library are nearing completion and the doors will be flung open on 5 December.

The Swanston Street entrance has been remodelled as have many other familiar spaces, along with spaces that have been hidden from the public. A major aspect of the redevelopment has been the restoration of Queens Hall, which has been closed to the public since 2003. When it was originally built, it featured massive glass skylights that were gradually covered up over time, and it has now been totally restored to its original, albeit improved, glory. A new children’s quarter, endowed by Gandel Philanthropy, is sure to become a centrepiece; designed to emulate a soaring tree house (Andy Griffiths had some input there!) it will have separate spaces for different age groups. Another section that has been hidden for many years is the Victoria Gallery, which from 1892 until 1968 was the home of the National Gallery of Victoria. With the support of the John and Myriam Wylie Foundation, the space has been restored to create a new gallery to highlight the library’s existing collection and to house visiting exhibitions. The inaugural exhibition, Velvet, Iron and Ashes, opened on 24 October.

The design for the project was a collaboration between Australian firm Architectus and Danish firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen and they’ve managed to create light, airy, useful spaces while retaining the Victorian drama and heritage. In all the redevelopment will provide forty per cent more public space and seventy per cent more seating.

I find this project so inspiring and affirming; with its completion the State Library precinct will have completed its transformation – which began in 2010 with the opening of the Wheeler Centre – into a wonderful, accessible public space home to books, ideas and inspiration.

In other recent updates, an timely new edition of journalist and broadcaster Virginia Trioli’s 1996 book Generation F, which was originally written as a response to Helen Garner’s The First Stone, is being brought out in November by publisher Ben Ball at Simon & Schuster. It includes a new introduction and afterword written in light of the #MeToo movement. Trioli will be talking about her book and why it was time to bring it back at a Readings event at the Church of All Nations on Friday 22 November. You can book to join us here.