As part of a redevelopment initiative, the new Edmonds Town Centre Library will replace the existing Kingsway Library. The new library will be located at the northeast corner of Kingsway and Walker Avenue. In addition to continuing its role of lending books and other materials to the public, the Library will serve as a community anchor, as a community resource, and as a meeting place. It will provide outreach services to new Canadians and provide access to computer technology and language training. The Edmonds Town Centre Library design will have a transparency through the use of exterior glazing treatments, providing the public an awareness of its internal activities.

Image Courtesy of: CEI Architecture & Diamond and Schmitt Architects

The visual connection between pedestrian and library patron is critical and will serve as an invitation to participate. The exterior form, use of materials, and architectural details together will give the building a strong civic identity. The Edmonds community is multi-ethnic. It is important that the architecture is not culturally imposing in its use of materials and form. The library reading room will read as a beacon on Kingsway.

The design, with 46 underground parking spaces and a 1,600 sq. m (17,500 sq. ft.) library is intended to address the community’s needs over the next twenty years. The library planning is based on a large reading room surrounded by lower programme spaces and administration areas, all on a single level. Within the main space, the strategic placement of book stacks and other components will create separate programme areas. The open concept design compliments the needs of Library staff to have good visual control and allows the public ease of orientation with the building. The main entrance is set back from Kingsway on Walker Avenue, but is signalled directly on Kingsway by a landscaped, terraced forecourt, an over-sailing porch and a canopy which leads to the entrance. Parking access is outside the library control point, adjacent to the entrance. The Walker Avenue landscape treatment will provide a series of quiet spaces which will animate the streetscape and provide calm at the library entrance. The Kingsway treatment will incorporate a ‘History Wall’ which will incorporate ideas and images of the area’s past.