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L E G E N D S | C E N T R A L L I B R A R Y
T
urns out, what is key to an ancient city like
Alexandria is key to a modern metropolitan
one like Calgary—a high degree of civic
engagement. That it is the tributary of a fast-
growing city with a robust public library system, Central
Library, which is part of a mushrooming cultural campus,
was graced with 240,000 square feet of expanded
facilities and marks Calgary's largest public investment
since the 1988 Winter Olympics. It was never going to
be by-the-book project. But then, it couldn't be, could
it? Not with a site bisected by a fully operational Light
Rail Transit Line, a building whose every sides function
as its front, and a flashing crystalline façade featuring
a hexagonal pattern in alternating panels of glass and
iridescent aluminum. This is a library? Indeed. The
library of the future.
Intellectual without airs, Central Library is a bit of
a mixed bag with books among broadcast facilities
for homegrown You Tube and podcast productions.
With the architecture intended to support the library's
historical role to provide resources and serve as a
point of connection for the community, the Central
Library schematic is one that drives interaction: visitors
arrive at the facility from all directions via moderately
terraced slopes, and an outdoor amphitheater is meant
to accommodate library programming should it spill
outside. And then there's the summons of nature. The
library invites Calgary's mountains and prairies into the
urban cityscape, and its sunlight to flood the spacious,
open interior, providing both warmth and orientation.
As a showpiece, the place does not disappoint—
that's what $245 million can buy. While the price tag
CENTRAL LIBRARY IN
CALGARY TAKES ITS
CUES FROM BOTH ITS
IMMEDIATE URBAN
ENVIRONMENT, WITH
A MODERN, USER-
FRIENDLY FORM,
AND THE WIDER
LANDSCAPE, WITH
WESTERN RED CEDAR
SOURCED FROM
BRITISH COLUMBIA
AND A PROFUSION OF
NATURAL LIGHT. THE
GLEAMING EDIFICE
OF THE BUILDING
GIVES WAY TO A
SERENE INTERIOR FOR
CONTEMPLATION AND
ENGAGEMENT.
A house
that has
a library
in it has
a soul.
-Plato
