Impressive architecture creates open spaces along with intimate areas to read and learn
Encasing an active LRT line with a reflective exterior and archways of red cedar and glass skylights, the new Central Library is a breathtaking feat of engineering, design and innovation.
Nordic-inspired architectural firm Snohetta partnered with Calgary ’s Dialog design group to create a wide-open structure with unlimited natural light that also somehow offers intimate experiences in education and entertainment.
“We wanted it to be something unique, a wide-open feeling of a boat, or an ark, but that also gives you an intimate experience,” said Craig Dykers, design director for Snohetta, which has offices in Norway, Austria, France and the U.S.
“It is a huge space. But there are very intimate, hidden spaces here too that are only big enough for one person to fit into. I won’t say where they are. People will have to discover them for themselves.”
Even from the outside, the 250,000-square-foot, four-storey structure is overwhelming, with a blue and white “curtain wall” exterior made of 460 hexagonal glass panels meant to reflect the light and colour of Calgary’s skyline.
Fabricated by Calgary-based Ferguson Corp., the panels took eight months to make, with clear, glazed or fritted finishing and strategically placed to prevent heat build-up inside. Prototype panels were sent to testing labs in Florida to see how they withstood water, heat and other extreme conditions.
At the northwest corner, the building ’s prow — or the portion of a ship’s bow over water — juts over the mouth of the tunnel that encases the north-south LRT line, making the site challenging but also a force behind the unique design.
This was the first time in Calgary ’s history that an active LRT line was encased to enable an above-grade development project. The top floor of the prow boasts incredible views of the city’s north and west end.
As you enter the building, from the west across from the Municipal Building or from the east just past the National Music Centre, you will walk underneath a massive archway, framed with red cedar sourced from British Columbia. The tunnel-like passageway doubles as a pedestrian thoroughfare and provides a visual link between East Village and downtown.
Inside the structure, western hemlock softwood native to the West Coast lines much of the walls and ceiling along what feels like a ship topped by a wide-open central skylight meant to bring in the city ’s famously sunny skies.
“You have a lot of sunlight here in Calgary,” Dykers said, explaining that natural light not only gives the interior space an outdoor feel but also highlights the balance between the wood and colourful book collections.
“You have to remember books are organic objects, natural products made of pulp and paper coming from trees just like the wood that is all around us.
“The two are cousins — very similar, but different in composition.”
But the larger simplicity of the structure, he added, allows users to appreciate the smaller, more intimate details of the building ’s design.
At the entrance, a vertical runway encased in glass is the library ’s “bookscalator” moving returned books along a conveyor belt that you can see.
Hemlock wooden stairwells give way to wooden desks or chairs but also building blocks, farm animal toys and board games.
Reading spaces vary in size from wide-open padded steps to a variety of tables and seats, to several hidden, padded reading burrows and caverns, particularly in the kids’ areas. Even the teen’s section offers intimate reading booths fit for four, mimicking a covered dining car, along with high-back bowl chairs perfect for two to sit and read closely.
But no matter where you’re standing, Dykers says, a place to sit with a book is always a step away.
“They say that in a library if your butt is happy, you are happy,” he says.
“But it’s just one of many ways we want to create that intimate reading experience, something that is unique and separate from what has become such a digital life for all of us.
“People are less familiar with books, We need to entice them, not just from the outside of the building, but on the inside as well.
“We want the generosity of the space to create specific intentions, intentions to read.”