The old State Library is a charming old building, but it’s occupying prime Brisbane CBD land and should be re-developed, preserving as much of the original building as possible, of course. The National Trust of Queensland, however, has signalled “widespread protests” against plans to re-develop the old State Library into a 400-room hotel, which will involve constructing a hotel tower behind it:
Heritage group ‘up in arms’ over tower plan
Brisbane is a mature, modern and growing city, and we need to recognise that a lot of these 19th century buildings aren’t terribly special and are hindering progress. Back in the late 1870s, when the old State Library was built, Brisbane had a population of around 30,000 people. Now it has a population of around 1.7 million. Let’s forget about the past and look to the future.
fyi – really useful historical data from Qld Treasury’s Office of Economic and Statistical Research (OESR):
Queensland Economy Watch 