New Central Library | ?m | 6s | Calgary Library | Snøhetta

General rating of the project

  • Great

    Votes: 53 72.6%

  • Very Good

    Votes: 16 21.9%

  • Good

    Votes: 4 5.5%

  • So so

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Not Very Good

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Terrible

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    73
Yep, less glass on the finished product than the rendering, which is disappointing, but I still like it.
 
It actually just makes me mad seeing the facade be butchered. With such a high price tag I don't get how they could cheap out on one of the most important features. In my opinion the facade should have been about 75% clear arctic blue glass, 20% white panels and 5% grey/blue spandrel. It would have looked like a crystal shard boat. Instead, a plastic fisher price boat.
 
I've been led to believe that sun and books don't like each other. Still, other Central Libraries manage lots of glass. Perhaps, it is the narrowness of the building that kept the glass to the minimum. Those other libraries tend to be quite squarish with the books held in the interior where sunlight doesn't penetrate

Regardless, this is becoming more and more disappointing.
 
I'm going to play devil's advocate here. As much as it appears to be less glass, looking at the rendering closely and comparing I don't see actually see a difference. The rendering makes it appear as if there is more, but actually comparing and counting the number of glass panels, it's the same. It's more the way the rendering makes it look. I believe the completed product is the initial design. That said, it needs more glass either way.
 
I disagree. The top ten feet or so in the rendering is 95% glass. The actual construction is 95% spandrel.
 
Looking at these two pics it looks like the very top rim section was changed. Looks to me like the amount of white spandrel is about the same, but the number of transparent glass sections is less and has been replaced wit the grey spandrel. We'll see once the north end is done, as that's where the most transparent glass seems to be.
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I was going by the twillight picture in the header. This daylight picture does pose a question? The grey is fritted glass in the rendering. Are we mistaking fritted glass for spandrel on the real building?
 
Went from being a stellar rending to a pretty good building. Still some chances to salvage it and have a gorgeous building, but they are getting fewer and fewer.
 
Mountain Man said:
Went from being a stellar rending to a pretty good building. Still some chances to salvage it and have a gorgeous building, but they are getting fewer and fewer.
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I think the inside will still be great, but the facade is a let down. I'm holding out hope on the last bit of north section to try and salvage what should have been a great facade.
 
I think the inside might be impacted though, by having much less windows and therefore much less natural light. Hopefully not. BTW, for all the photographers out there, can I make a request? I mentioned last week that there is some of the wood underside already installed along 3rd street. Next time one of you swing by, can I request a photo? I was driving when I saw it, so couldn't even pull my phone out for a pic.
 
I wonder why they cut back on transparent panels so much. Is it really that big a difference in cost? Why not go exactly with the cladding in the render? Obviously the same materials are available.

I'll reserve final judgement until I see the bow of the ship. That notch in her hull around the c-train, the panelling around the pedestrian tunnel, and mucho glasso on the northern prominence are some of the most impactful features. Also bear in mind that everyone loves a mature tree canopy (as promised by the render). I just noticed they removed all trees that were on 3rd st.
 
I wonder why as well. I thought I read somewhere recently that the building was ahead of schedule and under budget. CMIIW. It beckons the
question as to whether value engineering had anything to do with it. Even with a western exposure to sunlight here in Calgary, you can still
get some colossal heat gain coefficients. Perhaps they specified a glass that deals with that effectively, and discovered that the Royal Canadian Mint
couldn't even cover the cost, hence going to more spandrel. I'm just musing, as I don't know enough about the materials they are using. Typically,
for any BIM building design, they would have modelled that in the early design phase.
 
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