The Library+ Caloundra redevelopment transforms the former 1990s Council Administration Building into a contemporary cultural and learning hub for the Sunshine Coast community.

The project integrates a Major District Library, Council Customer Service, and community hub within an entirely retained concrete structure. Keeping 100% of the existing frame was not a budget constraint; it was a design position - one that honours embedded carbon, captures embodied history, and proves that inherited complexity is something to resolve, not demolish.

The spatial logic moves from ground to canopy to sky: active children's zones and Council services at street level, climate-controlled collections and study above, and a civic outdoor room among retained mature fig trees at the roof. An acoustic gradient threads through every level, ensuring students, seniors, families, and jobseekers each find their place within the same building. Meeting rooms run at 100% capacity. Venue spaces average 58 booked hours per week.

The community responded immediately. Over 1,000 visitors arrived in the first hour. Monthly visits now reach 33,000 - a 90% increase year-on-year. New memberships have grown 593%. An Inclusion Membership serves people experiencing homelessness, domestic violence, and children in foster care, with 250 members enrolled. 56 literacy classes and 28 digital literacy programs now run each quarter.

As a 6 Star Green Star Design, it is a replicable model for civic infrastructure in regional Australia.

"Library+ is now the civic heart of Caloundra. It is proof that investment in good design is investment in community wellbeing."
— Ben Wallis & Jane Stronach, Sunshine Coast Council