After years of delays, leakage problems and budget overruns, Oslo Mayor Marianne Borgen can finally lay down the cornerstone of the city’s new main library at Bjørvika on Friday. The library, called Deichmanske, is rising on the eastern waterfront just behind the Opera House.
The entire area is one large construction zone at present, as work also proceeds on the new Munch Museum, rising just east of the Opera House. “We’re happy to have come this far now in the building process,” Eli Grimsby, a city director in charge of the project, told news bureau NTB. The second floor of the five-story building was recently laid, with part of it set aside for the cornerstone.
The library is now due to open in 2020, and remain open seven days a week. The public will be offered 10,000 square meters of reading rooms, study rooms, exhibits, a children’s area and two large auditoriums for debates, films and concerts.
newsinenglish.no staff
