Library Buildings around the World

circulation routes are organized into two routes, one north-south and one east-west. The north-south route is the primary orientation
space in the building and is comprised of a series of interconnected two-storey spaces. The Library’s main entrance, stair, elevators
and café are all located within this linear ‘slot’ which serves as a concentration of the buildings most active spaces, isolating noise
and commotion from the quite study spaces located on the far side of the compact storage range. The east-west circulation route is
expressed on every floor and divides the plan into service spaces. (Shore)
Building a new library for the evolving University of Toronto at Mississauga (UTM) campus presented significant challenges for
Shore Tilbe Irwin & Partners (STI): it was critical to balance architectural innovation with some degree of restraint in order to
complement its award-winning neighbours--Saucier + Perrotte Architectes' (S+P) Centre for Information Technology (CIT) and
Baird Sampson Neuert Architects' student residence, all of which grace this very walkable, yet highly suburban university campus.
Having recently strengthened the south end of the site with their design for the Wellness Centre in 2006, STI have created yet
another gateway building. This time, located at the northern entrance into the university, the recently completed and popular Hazel
McCallion Academic Learning Centre marks the latest in a series of new buildings linked together through a network of paths and
courtyards. The requirement that the new library hold almost its entire collection of books in high-density mobile compact shelving
allowed STI's design lead Andrew Frontini to create more flexible and adaptable study spaces, with openness and security achieved
through clear sightlines. The evolution of the contemporary university library is increasingly based on spatial conventions where
students access and retrieve information digitally. Who needs to sequester themselves in a quiet corner with a book, when research
material is increasingly available online? Other programmatic requirements for the facility include digital data retrieval areas,
special meeting rooms, a centre for adaptive technology designed to assist students with various forms of learning disabilities, a
career counselling centre, and increased office space for the library staff. Even the indefatigable octogenarian Mayor of Mississauga,
Hazel McCallion, for whom the building is named, has a corner office here. Rising to the challenge of designing compact shelving as
a progenitor for the parti, Frontini and his team took inspiration from three-dimensional Japanese puzzle boxes that open and close
in various configurations. Through the use of wooden models comprising various moving parts, their architectural explorations of
shifting volumes led them to a strategy of "kinetic elements" that was able to define clear access points into the building, while
expressing the book stacks and study areas without compromising the puzzle box metaphor. Frontini was very clear about avoiding
a building that yielded a normative expression of spandrel panels and punched windows. Beginning with the inner and outer
"cabinets" of the compact storage spaces for the books, the building layers itself outwardly and is accentuated with a variety of basic
interior surface treatments for the walls and ceiling, such as wooden panels and inlaid ceiling tiles. The design and spacing of the
interior columns varies throughout the building, establishing a structural hierarchy and clear logic to the program. Stacked shelving
constitutes a heavy load requirement, demanding more robust concrete columns. However, lower load requirements along the
perimeter enabled a lighter architectural expression for the staff, study and lounge areas. The landscape for the project was designed
by the MBTW Group and further enhanced the manipulation of the various volumes expressed throughout the building. The sunken
garden along the south façade, for example, serves as an extension to the adjacent green roof of the CIT parking garage while
creating a microclimate extending the seasonal use of the campus's outdoor space system. Resulting from a reduction in some of the
building's programmatic footprint, a south-facing rooftop garden tucked away behind crenellations on the fourth floor offers a
delightfully surprising element for the students, although it remains largely inaccessible due to safety and maintenance concerns.
One defining feature of the library is the successful two-storey cantilevered study wing hanging off the building and comprising the
west façade. With its unique pattern of dots applied to the inside surface of the glazing--providing some protection from the
afternoon sun (heat gain is reduced by 60 percent through this application), students are able to sit on stools along the façade and
work away on their laptops, or engage in quiet conversation as they gaze out into the adjacent forest. Intended as another dynamic
element to the building, the steel hangers supporting the cantilever successfully express the strength and innovation of the structure,
while descending into custom-designed cherrywood study tables. The structure's hangers are attractively engineered, but the
unsightly consequence of the required spray-on fireproofing where the hangers connect to the columns warrants some design
refinement. Fortunately, part of the post-occupancy acoustic retrofits to the building will allow the architects to address this and a
few other unresolved design issues such as visible sprinkler lines and wall and ceiling detailing. Another notable feature of the
project is the glazed link connecting the new library to S+P's CIT building. The process of joining the two buildings was not without
its challenges, but the issues of deficiencies will eventually be fine-tuned. Although technically considered a "public corridor" for
code considerations, the link between the two buildings--intended as an "interior street"--is used much more intensively than
initially anticipated. Because of this, as well as ensuring a degree of design continuity, various issues had to be resolved so that fire
separations, mechanical conditions relating to heat and air handling, and the selection of windows and hardware could be
determined through the combined efforts of STI, S+P and the mechanical engineers. What makes this building particularly
handsome is its delightful use of a Spanish panellized cladding system known as Prodema. It is the first time that such a cladding
system has been used for a large assembly building in Ontario. Each panel is comprised of a resin-impregnated wood veneer
laminated over a high-density phenolic core. Because this product is relatively new to the Canadian market, it had to undergo ULC
tests for fire and weather ratings before being applied. Due to the project's scheduling, if the ULC rating hadn't been confirmed for
another two weeks, an alternative cladding system would necessarily have been selected. With features that include sensors and
programmed dimmers to control the lights, a heating and cooling system powered by the campus's co-generation system, various
shading and overhang design elements, and the use of recycled materials comprising much of the interior finishes such as the carpet,
ceilings and millwork, the library has achieved the distinction of being the campus's first LEED Silver-rated building. As for the
building's success, the proof is in the programming. When the library initially opened, it quickly grew popular with the student body
and is well used. But the campus--often referred to as "Erindale High"--is characterized by a very young student body often lacking
in awareness or respect for its own built environment. Cigarette butts, chewing gum, noisy cell phones and petty vandalism do not
mix well with an elegant architecture that consciously avoids the palette of materials usually found in 1970s institutional buildings-painted
cinder blocks, epoxy floors, brutal concrete, fixed plastic seating and few windows. It is hoped that with the new Hazel
McCallion Library, students will learn to learn to appreciate this architecture as part of their new university experience,
differentiating it from the durable and nearly bulletproof Brutalist architecture forming the architectural foundations of most
universities in Canada.
Whitby Library and Civic Square, Whitby, ON – Canada 2005
Project Size: 50,000 sq. ft., Project Value: $20 million, Completion Date: 2005, Client: Town of Whitby
The primary design objective for this 56,000 sq. ft. central library is the creation of a dynamic relationship between a grand interior
public space and an outdoor urban public space in the form of a new civic square. The design team adopted a simple ‘L-shaped’
configuration in order to maintain the existing library structure during construction and to create a strong spatial definition for the
proposed urban plaza that faces onto a heavy traffic artery. A three-storey, north-facing library hall opens directly on to the urban
square which is animated by the concentration of vertical circulation, information commons and displays, all visible through an
uninterrupted expanse of glass at the edge of the square. (Shore)
Whitby (pop. 115,000) is a bedroom community located about 45 minutes east of Toronto along the Trans-Canada Highway. As the
needs of the town grew, the original 16,000-square-foot library built in the early '60s by Moriyama and Teshima needed
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