Chamberlain Street in 1969

Te Takere is being created by combining the Levin Library on Bath Street with the Countdown Building on Chamberlain Street (Levin Mall carpark). The Countdown building was opened in 1970, and the Levin Mall to it its immediate north in 1971.

This photo looks north along Chamberlain Street in 1969 before construction began on the Mall. It is one of a series of photographs taken by Dorothy Picken who was the Librarian at the time. More of her photos can be found on Kete Horowhenua.

Echoes of Tenants Past

The echoes of tenants past were heard last week when this old McKenzie logo was found on a door being removed from the old Countdown space. The Countdown space was originally McKenzies and opened in November 1970.

It originally had doors opening to the north, where the Mall is now, and to the south, onto the concrete area at the end of the existing library. The Levin Mall opened a year later, in 1971. McKenzies later became Woolworths and then much later, sometime after 1991 it became Countdown.

Inside colours

The cheerful sound of giant woodpeckers and the grumble of unseen machinery from beyond the wall is taking a small break. However smiles continue unabated as work generally progresses towards our new building. One of the greatest pleasures is sharing the news of a positive outlook with library users. Yes! We are expanding! Say goodbye to the empty abandoned-looking shell and HELLO to progress. Imagine the the incredible services we will be able to offer, the space we will have, the exhibitions we will show. The pride we will have in working in such a dynamic library and community centre.

Those steel beams are huge!

This morning the noise in the back alley drew us out to see what was going on.  Huge steel beams that had been removed from inside were being loaded onto a truck to be taken away.  What a precision exercise it was.  The skill of the guys who are responsible for moving such weighty items is amazing.  Three men, one truck and the job was done in minutes!

Firstly the crane on the truck was used to drag the beams out of the building entrance to where the guys were able to safely hook it up.

It didn't take long at all for the beam to be swung ever so gently up over the truck to where it could be loaded for carting away.

Now we can see what all the noise was about...

Things progress apace!  What a difference a few days make.  The floor inside the old building has now been  leveled out ready for resurfacing.  The footing has been dug for the new concrete block wall between the library and the Mall (a fire requirement), and a large hole has been dug to accommodate the workings of the new lift that will make it easy for folk to get to the spacious mezzanine floor.  A new void has been created by the removal of some huge steel beams in one corner.  This will be over one of the new meeting spaces.  And now we can see where the openings joining the new space with the old library are going to be.  Not as wide as we imagined they were going to look, but I'm sure they will be fine.  It's such a big space that it is a bit difficult to imaging how it is going to look once it is filled up!  By the time the building team go off for the Christmas Break the demolition phase should be over and the building should be ready for them to start construction in the new year.

The channel for the new fire wall - no wonder it was noisy in the Mall while they were digging it!



Thanks to Mario and his team for saving the noisiest part of their work until the library was closed yesterday.  We really appreciated your consideration.

A Peek inside

A peek inside this morning let us see what all of the noise is about.  There are concrete footings where freezers and other equipment used to stand that have to be removed to give us a level floor.  There are channels to be dug in the existing concrete.  So men driving the heavy machinery are making rapid progress.   Some of the steel beams that support the existing mezzanine floor are being removed to create void above the back corner which will let in lots of natural daylight.  It's all very busy and we are grateful to the site foreman, Mario Hori te Pa, for making it possible for us to keep this log.

The big jack hammer in action.














North end of the interior - the truck parked inside  makes it really obvious how much room there is inside building.

Reflections of a staff member

I was working away at my desk this morning and kept feeling that something was missing. It finally dawned on me that it was blissfully quiet. No jack hammers causing the walls to vibrate and the teeth to chatter. I can actually concentrate on my work. I know that this is just a respite before it all starts up again. I really don’t mind too much. Te Takere is on its way.