27 Oct 2026
The team behind He Puna Manawa, the new library and community hub in Tauranga, has been recognised with the Best Team Award at the 2026 Property Council New Zealand Central Property People Awards.
The award celebrates the collaboration, adaptability and shared commitment behind successful project outcomes. For He Puna Manawa, it acknowledges the collective effort of Tauranga City Council, mana whenua, the design team, consultants, contractors, and many others who worked together to bring an important new civic building to life.
He Puna Manawa officially opened its doors to the Tauranga community in October. It is the first new building to be completed within Te Manawataki o Te Papa, bringing together the city's central library with community, learning, creative and archive spaces.
The opening marks the culmination of a deeply collaborative design and delivery process. Developed in partnership with Tauranga City Council and mana whenua, the building responds to the history and significance of the whenua while creating a welcoming place for people to learn, connect, create and spend time together.
The team delivered a first-of-its-kind civic mass timber building on time and under budget, achieving a 6 Star Green Star Design rating from the New Zealand Green Building Council.
“Tauranga’s new library shows civic buildings can be ambitious, low-carbon and delivered on time and on budget. That’s a model councils across the country should be looking at,” says Leonie Freeman, Chief Executive of Property Council New Zealand.
Studio Pacific is proud to have contributed architecture, interiors and landscape architecture to the project, and to share in this recognition alongside the wider team.
Congratulations to everyone involved in bringing He Puna Manawa to life.
Project Partners
Client: Tauranga City Council
Development Partner: Willis Bond
Construction: LT McGuinness
Co-design and Cultural Collaboration: Otamataha Trust, Te Kāhui Toi
Architecture, Interiors and Landscape: Studio Pacific Architecture
Design and Engineering: RCP, Rider Levett Bucknall, Dunning Thornton Consultants, Beca, Norman Disney and Young, Inhabit, Mott MacDonald, Marshall Day, TwentyTwo, Brevity
