'Forbidding' £27m Sunderland library plan approved

Sunderland City Council approved plans for the Culture House on Keel Square

Plans for a new £27m library dubbed "monolithic" and "forbidding" by critics have been approved.

Sunderland City Council wants to build the four-storey Culture House as part of its Riverside Sunderland masterplan.

The building on Keel Square would also house exhibition space and art facilities for adults and children.

Sunderland Civic Society said according to the plans, the building's design "leaves much to be desired" and it would block various views.

'Erratic windows'

As well as adult and children's library facilities, the venue would have a café, business and faith spaces, an events hall, a local studies and archive centre and a roof garden, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The council said the building, which was estimated to cost at least £27m to build and would be part funded by the government, would help boost city spending while attracting more than half a million visitors a year.

The civic society was critical of the its design however, saying the "intended appearance is monolithic and will give the look more of a forbidding institution rather than a welcoming destination".

The society said its scale was "intimidating" with "sparse" and "erratically" placed windows.

The society also said the building's towers were "squat rather than having any elegance" and a red brick exterior would be in better keeping with the city's historic architecture.

Restaurant closure

Planning officers said they acknowledged the criticisms but the building would form part of a "modern development" within "the context of other recent projects at Riverside Sunderland" including the new city hall, which like the Culture House has been designed by FaulknerBrowns Architects.

Historic England said the Culture House would "complete Keel Square with a building of landmark quality and public focus".

A series of buildings would have to be demolished to make way, including Luciano's Restaurant, which has announced it will close after 30 years in the city.

Almost 5,000 people signed a petition calling for the council to relocate the restaurant, although what will happen next to it has not been confirmed.

Michael Butler, chair of the Planning and Highways (East) Committee, added: "I'm sure hopefully Luciano's will continue to trade somewhere else in the city centre, I'm sure they will."

The BBC has contacted Luciano's for comment.