10 big ideas from around the world to inspire Ottawa's new super library
Taylor Blewett, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: June 13, 2019
The site of Ottawa’s new super library is, right now, a construction zone at the eastern edge of LeBreton Flats. It’s a blank slate, and a behemoth opportunity.
By 2024, the site will jointly house the Ottawa Public Library’s new central branch alongside Library and Archives Canada space.
The team behind the 216,000-square-foot project with a $193-million price tag is currently on what might be described as a library world tour, surveying standout institutions with an eye to shaping our own. They’re also asking for inspiration here at home, hosting online and in-person community engagement activities. The response has been huge, prompting workshop sellouts and hundreds of responses in the first of four consultation phases earlier this year.
It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the world of libraries that this project is proving so important to Ottawans. For the last decade or more, new libraries around the globe have captured hearts and minds, and facilities of all ages are finding themselves increasingly celebrated as beacons of access, innovation and democracy.
With this in mind, we, too, are joining the chorus of voices weighing in on what the new joint facility could look like. Through research and interviews with library authorities at home and abroad, we’ve compiled a list of 10 big ideas to inspire Ottawa’s super library.
1. Community-inspired libraries
Whether it’s physical geography or cultural heritage, cues from the surrounding community provide a perennial source of inspiration for library designers.
At the UNAM Central Library in Mexico City, the country’s history is quite literally enshrined in the walls of the building. Constructed in the 1950s and designed by famed architect-painter Juan O’Gorman, coloured stones from across the country form mosaic murals depicting culturally-relevant imagery and Mexican historical scenes.
Chicago Public Library’s Chinatown branch was shaped by the principles of feng shui, a Chinese practice of aligning spaces with energy flows. An open-concept library in Tilburg, Netherlands was built in a former Dutch National Railways shed, and has original industrial columns and train tracks running through it.
It’s not just a library’s physical infrastructure that can reflect the unique nature of the place in which it’s located. While Austin’s new central library itself was designed with a rooftop garden and reading porches to mirror Texans’ passion for the outdoors, it also tailors its programming to the character of its community. A large Spanish-speaking population made classes teaching the language a logical choice, said Sidney Bowen. He’s a managing principal at Shepley Bulfinch, one of two architecture firms behind the library’s design. “Make it culturally like Austin – or in your case, culturally like Ottawa.”
The future library site at 555 Albert St. sits at the western edge of Ottawa’s downtown and the strip of national institutions along Wellington Street. It offers views and easy access across the Ottawa River to Quebec, and sits on the edge of LeBreton Flats, which is traditional Algonquin territory. It’s at a physical crossroads between urban Ottawa and a wilder landscape — but it’s also at a cultural one.
“It’s really sort of on the route that connects the three founding peoples – French, English and Indigenous,” said Donald Schmitt, the project’s lead architect and founding principal of Diamond Schmitt Architects. One of the many questions the design team is asking itself – and Ottawa – is how to bring together all three communities “into the building and create a kind of common ground, a town square,” said Schmitt. He also mentioned the possibility of an outdoor reading space on the roof to capitalize on the site’s sweeping views.
2. Sustainable libraries
Schmitt dropped another hint about his priorities for the new super library – minimizing its carbon footprint, and harnessing renewable energy. His said his office has already designed three buildings that produce more electrical energy than they use, and it’s “absolutely possible” this project could achieve the same.
“We’re very interested to kind of push the envelope as much as we can to a very high standard of sustainability,” said Schmitt. It’s that very benchmark on which libraries around the world compete every year, for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’ Green Library Award.
Foshan Library, located in China’s Guangdong Province, took gold in 2018. The building hosts a rainwater reuse system, a glass facade designed to leverage natural light and warmth, seven separate gardens on different floors, smart LED lights on its bookshelves that turn off automatically when readers leave the area, and paperless office operations.
The previous Green Library winner, Stadtbibliothek Bad Oldesloe in Germany, took the top prize for years of programming focused on urban gardening and agriculture. The small-town library – the population of Bad Oldesloe is 25,000 – hosted a seed-exchange, gardening makerspace workshops, children’s bean-growing competitions and guided foraging tours.
These programs and a slate of others made library users “the protagonists of a wide variety of activities to promote sustainability,” said one award reviewer.
3. Indigenous libraries
It’s already been made clear that Ottawa’s new super library will incorporate Indigenous culture and heritage. The city is funding Indigenous public art, and the project team has set up past and planned meetings with local and national Indigenous groups. What the end result will look like, however, is still up in the air. Guy Berthiaume, Librarian and Archivist of Canada, said the new joint facility will offer a dedicated space for Indigenous people.
“But how it’s going to look, how it’s going to feel, what’s going to be its purpose, etc. – that’s also something that we didn’t want to define by ourselves,” said Berthiaume.
Leonard Hill is the executive director of collections at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Its Canberra facility houses a national collection of books, film, art and sound related to Indigenous Australians, and offers services similar to those of Library and Archives Canada. While the majority of its visitors are researchers – again, like LAC – Hill said AIATSIS is seeing a rising number of Indigenous Australians looking to engage with its collections.
A popular program provides these users free copies of collection items that relate to their family or language group. Another service sees the AIATSIS family history unit work with members of the Stolen Generations – Australia’s equivalent of the Sixties Scoop – to conduct research into their family backgrounds. The institute is also in the process of developing a series of Australian Indigenous-language dictionaries.
“It’s great that we have such an extensive and wonderful archive and collection of materials that describe Indigenous Australians, but like any archive or collection of materials, the real value is when people become aware and understand what we have,” Hill said.
4. Attractive libraries
To call it uninviting might be an overstatement, but the current Ottawa central library certainly doesn’t encourage you to break from the path you’re walking to come inside. Ottawa Public Library CEO Danielle McDonald is the first to acknowledge this unfortunate reality.
“When you walk down the street, how do you know it’s a library?” McDonald said.” I don’t see it as completely different than a lot of the buildings down here.”
Rather than a brutalist concrete structure at the downtown corner of Metcalfe Street and Laurier Avenue, McDonald wants a new central library that beckons, allowing you to “start to experience the library before you get to it,” she said.
It’s a desire based in best practice – just ask Janice Liebe, principal at design firm DIALOG and project architect for Calgary’s new central library, which opened in November 2018. The design team decided take up an entire north-south block to allow the striking structure to be visible to approaching drivers on connecting streets.
“Libraries are public buildings and they need a presence in the community,” said Liebe. “It shouldn’t be hidden away, it should be a significant place in the city.”
More than 52,000 visitors flocked to Calgary’s new central branch during its first four days. And its popularity shows no signs of slowing down. The annual New York Times “Places to Go” list for 2019 included Calgary among its two Canadian destinations, and the vast majority of its write-up focused on the library.
The site’s attractiveness, Liebe said, is helped by the fact that it’s a natural bridge between two areas of the city that were previously disconnected by light rail tracks. The library fixed that problem when it was built directly over the rail line. “It brought people together in ways that they’d never been able to move through the city before,” Liebe said.
While 555 Albert St. doesn’t share precisely the same geographical situation, there’s still much that can be done to attract flows of people – from exterior park and performance spaces, to glass walls that allow a curious public to glimpse the action inside.
“Rather than a bridge, think of it as a magnet,” said Liebe. “What is going to bring people right by the door, and entice them in?”
5. Accessible libraries
At a small library in Richmond, B.C., people with autism spectrum disorder can relax and enjoy a book. It’s the kind of experience most people take for granted – but the “sensory-friendly, non-judgemental space” is a game-changer for its clients, said AutismBC library and program coordinator Allison Hill. In addition to calming colours, clear signage and special acoustic engineering, the library also hosts a significant collection of autism-related material for borrowing.
“I have heard from a number of people that they really appreciate having a space where they know that the staff understand autism and where they know that they won’t be judged or no one will stare at them if their kid’s behaviour is atypical or disruptive,” said Hill. She believes it’s an outcome that any library can work towards.
Across the pond, the goal of making public libraries more welcoming for people with autism led a U.K.-based not-for-profit called Dimensions to develop “autism-friendly library training.” The online material is available for free download, and provides basic information about behaviours to expect from library users with autism, as well as ways libraries can make their space and programming more accessible to these users.
“The autistic community just wants the same opportunities as everyone else and that should be motivation enough for libraries to get involved,” said Dimensions campaign manager Sarah Clarke. But if it isn’t, there’s also a business case to be made. Dimensions conducted a survey in 2016 and found that while people with autism were more likely to visit a library than those who don’t have autism, 40 per cent never did. And 90 per cent said that would change if more autism-friendly adjustments were implemented.
6. City-shaping libraries
No pressure, but super library architect Ralph Wiesbrock thinks Ottawa is on the brink of transformative change. He also believes the city’s new library could be a linchpin in that transformation.
“The LeBreton Flats development, I think, has got a lot of people spooked,” said Wiesbrock, a principal and partner at KWC Architects – one of two firms in the joint venture selected to design the new library.
While it’s true the now-failed RendezVous LeBreton redevelopment was a factor in selecting this particular site for the new library, Wiesbrock pointed out that Ottawa’s growth paired with the Flats’ development potential means the area will eventually be built up – by someone. And given the transit connection and infrastructure planned for the area, “it has the opportunity to be a significant counterpart to the downtown core,” he said.
In Wiesbrock’s eyes, the meltdown of RendezVous LeBreton is an opportunity, rather than a setback. It’s given Ottawa a moment to think further about what it wants such an important parcel of the city to look like.
“We’ve been doing things sort of incrementally without having a real vision and ability to coordinate different pieces of the puzzle that are being executed by different players,” he said. “So, that’s a vote for city planning and design thinking in a more integrated way.”
A look to the Texas state capital might prove instructive on this note for Ottawa’s planners. While Austin’s new central library is impressive in its own right, it also exemplifies the role a library can play in city-building. And it happens to share some striking similarities with Ottawa’s new super library – it’s located on formerly-industrial land along the water outside of the downtown core.
Today, the Austin central library is in the middle of a thriving new neighbourhood called the Seaholm District, connected by a bridge to a bustling urban hub and surrounded by residential and retail developments. The area’s cohesive transformation didn’t happen by accident, said Steve Raike, associate partner at Lake|Flato Architects. In fact, it took nearly 20 years, funding through municipal election bonds, and a lot of long-term thinking.
“There was a very high level of involvement on the City of Austin’s planning department,” said Raike. “(But) that part of downtown, the vision for that, has been very successful for Austin.”
While Wiesbrock isn’t advocating for a double-decade hiatus to plan a truly integrated vision for LeBreton Flats, “I think we might want to take a moment and say, ‘OK, how are we leading this forward?’” he said.
7. Open libraries
In Denmark, cardholders can let themselves into their public library for an all-night study session or early morning coffee and newspaper. It’s a concept called the “open library,” and although it came to be through adverse circumstances – budget cuts – the decision to go staff-less and self-serve during extended library hours has proven very successful in the small Scandinavian country.
“A lot of people who did not use the library actually began to use the library, because it was now a possibility for them,” said longtime Danish librarian and library consultant Jan Holmquist.
It’s a freedom unimaginable to public library users in Ottawa, where hours typically range between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. But the open library concept has already found an audience in Canada.
In 2017, Hamilton Public Library decided to pilot the model at its rural Freelton branch. According to Bibliothecha, a company that provides library management solutions, Freelton branch usage was up 19 per cent just five months into the “Open+” pilot. Hamilton Public Library later made the project permanent, and rolled out the open concept at a second rural branch.
There are concerns that open libraries could cost jobs. But according to Holmquist, research shows that maintaining staffed hours is critical to the success of open libraries. “If you think that we can just have an open house full of books but with no librarian in it, the use of the library actually declines.”
As for the safety and security of patrons and library materials in an unsupervised public space at late hours, Denmark’s open libraries are equipped with cameras, radio-frequency identification book tracking, and library card and pin code entrance requirements.
“It is a radical trust project,” Holmquist acknowledged. “But with a lot of heavy surveillance.”
8. Socially-engaged libraries
As climate-controlled, safe and familiar public places full of freely-available resources, libraries have long served as refuge for the insecurely housed. And until about five years ago, staff at Seattle Public Library thought those measures were enough.
“We primarily just kept our doors open and were a welcoming and inclusive space for everyone,” said Valerie Wonder, community engagement manager at Seattle Public Library. Then, reality on the streets of Washington state’s largest city arrived at a breaking point. Housing affordability reached crisis levels, and in November 2015, the city declared a homelessness state of emergency.
“Staff recognized that there were just large numbers of people in our buildings who had needs and questions that our standard librarian referrals weren’t able to adequately support, and so we started looking at what we could do,” Wonder recalled.
Through private funding, they managed to bring a social worker into the library. The service proved successful enough that the city stepped in and took over its funding. Today, the library offers appointments and four drop-in sessions with a social worker every week, who primarily offers referrals to service providers.
“Some days, there’s a line out the door,” said Wonder. The library also provides Wi-Fi hotspots to homeless encampments on a semi-permanent basis, and hosts a list of other civic and social services, from drop-in help for veterans to resources for people coming out of prison.
“In any urban setting where there’s a lot of people who are in need of social services or housing or are facing other kinds of crises, people come to pubic libraries,” said Wonder. “(Libraries) having social workers is not going to change the larger community issues, but … they will help people tap into the resources that do exist.”
While this isn’t something the Ottawa Public Library has done to date, CEO Danielle McDonald said she wants to start talking about the possibility.
“We could bring those services here if we work together and build some new partnerships,” she said.
9. Digital libraries
There’s no ignoring the seven-metre touchscreen in the middle of the ground floor of Christchurch, New Zealand’s new central library. The screen’s $1.2-million price tag demands attention, but equally if not more eye-catching – at least to library consultant Jan Holmquist – is the return on investment the “discovery wall” offers its community.
The library’s marquis attraction allows users to swipe through a digital version of Christchurch, exploring the city’s history and uploading their own community content through a related website.
“I think it was worth it,” said Holmquist, who believes every library has a timeless two-fold mandate: providing access to information, and actively supporting learning.
“We live in knowledge societies, and to have a place where everyone is welcome, and everyone can access not only information but also be able to translate that information into knowledge, I think that is very important” said Holmquist. “That’s the reason why I think the touch wall, sensing local history, is a very, very good idea – it’s another way of giving access to the old scriptures.”
Whether it’s virtual reality or 3D printers, “libraries are really great for bringing new technology in, and letting the community kind of get their hands on them for the first time,” said Amy Garmer, director of Dialogue on Public Libraries at The Aspen Institute, a U.S. think tank. By connecting to the state’s high-speed education and research internet network, public libraries in California can offer things like NASA spacewalk live streams, or VR for workforce training.
The Ottawa Public Library’s tech offerings are relatively modest at this point – it has a makerspace, and lends out Chromebooks and Wi-Fi hotspots, but CEO McDonald admits it can sometimes be hard to find consistent Wi-Fi. The plan for 555 Albert St. is “a much more technology-rich environment,” said McDonald, adding that it’s hard to know what that will look like when the library opens in five years.
Because it’s impossible to predict entirely what technologies and uses a library might need to support decades down the road, the next best thing libraries can do is prepare from the beginning to change when they have to. Take Egypt’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina, designed in 1989 and opened to the public in 2002.
“The personal computer was just beginning to emerge, and so we understood that we were on the brink of a major technological shift in how we share information,” said Craig Dykers, founding partner at architecture firm Snøhetta.
Over time, he said, group study areas were transformed into computer labs. The library’s planetarium now creates its own scientific films. An office space evolved into a recording studio, and today, the Bibliotheca produces Arabic audio books.
“Our approach was to design the library with enough capacity and versatility to anticipate and adapt to technological change over time,” said Dykers.
10. Tourist-attracting libraries
On TripAdvisor’s list of the best things to do in New York City, the New York Public Library claims the 13th spot – beating out such iconic attractions as Times Square, MoMA, and Radio City Music Hall. It’s not an isolated phenomenon.
“More and more, I see them showing up on either travel lists, or things to do if you’re in a particular city,” said Monique le Conge Ziesenhenne, president of the American Library Association’s Public Library Association.
From Salt Lake City to Stuttgart, listicles abound touting the most beautiful, interesting, must-see libraries of the world. And while Ottawa typically goes unmentioned, Librarian and Archivist of Canada Guy Berthiaume is holding out hope that the new super library will change things.
Currently, most of Library and Archives Canada’s restoration work happens behind closed doors, and its exhibition space is substandard. That means its most precious treasures, such as the Proclamation of the Constitution, can’t be displayed publicly, and other institutions are unwilling or unable to lend many of their own artifacts to LAC. The new building at 555 Albert St. will present a chance to fix both of these shortcomings, with a museum-quality exhibition room and a space to watch live LAC restoration work.
It will also have a new genealogy centre, leveraging what Berthiaume said is one LAC’s most popular public offerings. He’s hopeful that all of these features will put the new super library on the map in Canada and beyond, joining the ranks of other national libraries like those in London and Paris, which are seeing “huge” visitor numbers.
“With the internet, with the fact that everybody can now access everything online, the distinctions between high knowledge and popular culture are blurring,” said Berthiaume. “We’re capitalizing on the fact that there’s an appetite in the public to see the foundational documents, to see the actual archives, to touch their families through genealogical research.”
Berthiaume said he’s also expecting something “quite iconic” from Diamond Schmitt Architects that will make the new library an architectural as well as intellectual attraction. The design team set a high bar with their local work on the National Arts Centre’s facelift, and the Senate’s temporary home in the former Union train station, but Schmitt was quick to curtail expectations when the subject was broached.
“Architects don’t design iconic buildings,” he said. “The popular monuments really attain that status as a consequence of people falling in love with them.
“I do think design character and quality is very important … but that is in the service of making a great environment for people, something that is attractive, warm, welcoming, a place for gathering, a place for community.”
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...rld-to-inspire-ottawas-new-super-library
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