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
Calgary's new library in good company. Another good write up.
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/futuristic-libraries
Step Inside the World’s 9 Most Futuristic Libraries

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I grabbed the wife and kid and dropped into the library for the first time today. What an amazing building!

I was wondering how busy it would be now that it’s been open for a few months, and I was pleasantly surprised at how many people were in the building. Plenty of various side activities going on throughout the building, it was buzzing with people. Well done Calgary.

I could go on all day about it, but I’ll post a few pictures instead.

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haltcatchfire said:
That's amazing considering how cold it was today.
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I was also surprised to not see many homeless people. I thought on a cold day like today they would be hanging out in there, but there weren't many. I didn't get photos, but the building has many small meeting rooms and workshop rooms. All of which were in use. This is a great public facility.
 
BKha said:
I was also surprised to not see many homeless people. I thought on a cold day like today they would be hanging out in there, but there weren't many. I didn't get photos, but the building has many small meeting rooms and workshop rooms. All of which were in use. This is a great public facility.
Click to expand...

I’ve been going here regularly with my 3 year old. Was definitely concerned about it feeling like a glorified shelter, as so many urban libraries do. There are definitely street people there (one time I had to reroute the little one around paramedics who were trying to revive a guy overdosing in a washroom). Overall though I think they have done a great job making it a safe public space - the quantity of programming makes it busy with activity, the architecture separates the kids area as far as possible from the computer terminals which attract homeless, the security presence is highly visible and proactive, and the “high gloss” of the space seems to encourage everyone’s best behavior. It will be interesting to see if this can be sustained for the long term but they are off to a great start.
 
In the times I've been there, which is about 4-5 times, there have been a few homeless people, but almost unnoticeable. I noticed a few, but I was also looking for them and was expecting some to be there. My wife said she never noticed any. I think for many people, if they aren't expecting them they probably don't even notice. I too thought there would be more.
 
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