KOTA KINABALU – A major library many in Kota Kinabalu, Penampang and their adjacent districts are familiar with will soon be gone.
Those who were schooling between the 1970s and early 2000s are sure to know the old Sabah State Library building, which was built in 1974 at a cost of RM3 million at the time.
It will now make way for City Hall’s new headquarters.
Demolition works, which had been scheduled to start on March 16 with completion in six months, appears to only have begun today, with workers seen installing scaffoldings around the abandoned building.
Kota Kinabalu Mayor Noorliza Alip said the building has been empty since 2012, and City Hall was directed by the state cabinet to take over on February 4, 2015.
“In 2018, the site of the old state library building was approved as reserve land for the new Kota Kinabalu City Complex site.
“The official handover to City Hall by the state Library Department was done on February 16, 2021,” she said.
“After the demolition, the site will be used as a temporary parking space until work on the complex commences,” she told The Vibes.
Far from its former glory, the historic building is now blighted by vegetation, broken glass windows and missing rooftops.
The premise has provided fond memories for many Sabahans who had frequented the library for studies and revisions after school for 38 years from 1974 until 2012.
Located at the centre of Kota Kinabalu’s central business district, the two-storey building covers some 2,879 sq m.
It also served as the headquarters for the Sabah State Library until the office was shifted to the new headquarters in Jalan Tasik, near Luyang, in 2004.
The structure has seen rapid deterioration as it is near the sea, with wind and sand spoiling its walls and even interior. The state government had also previously spent RM1.4 million for repairs to the building. – The Vibes, April 6, 2021
