The planned location of the library is next to Helsinki Music Centre, under construction and scheduled for completion in spring 2011. The whole area, named Finlandia Park, will be an urban and cultural oasis, where culture, politics, tourism and the media meet. Besides parks and squares with different themes and the Music Centre, Finlandia Park is home to the Finlandia Hall congress and concert centre, the Finnish National Opera, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, and the Hakasalmi branch of the Helsinki City Museum.

 

The vicinity of Finlandia Park is home to the National Museum of Finland, the Ateneum art museum of the Finnish National Gallery, Parliament House, the Helsinki Central Railway Station (by architect Eliel Saarinen), the National Theatre, the Helsinki City Theatre, the Helsinki Winter Garden, Kaisaniemi Park, Kamppi Center with commercial facilities and an underground bus terminal, and the Sanoma House media headquarters building.

 

According to the new study, the Central City Library would be placed partially underground in larger underground facilities to be built in the area. Total floor space of the new library building would be 11,500 square metres. An architectural competition on the building would be organized in 2011, and construction would start in 2014.

 

It is estimated that the library building would attract 5,000 visitors per day and 1.5 million per year (far more than the population of 1.3 million in the Greater Helsinki Region).

 

The Helsinki City Library has close to 50 branches (in an area with a population of 577,000), 1.6 million books and 300,000 other recordings. The branches make more than 9 million loans and receive 6.4 million visitors per year (11.3 visits per resident).