The Idea Exchange Old Post Office is located in the former town of Galt, steps away from the historic main intersection, directly on the Grand River. Politically, the project lies at the heart of the City of Cambridge?s effort to revitalize its downtown areas and strengthen their connection with the Grand River. A three-minute walk from the Queen?s Square library branch, the new digital library is part of the Idea Exchange network, a set of well-designed libraries in the former towns of Galt, Preston and Hespeler. All of this together forms the context for this new branch: a network of beautiful library buildings, a sleepy downtown, a main artery and the Grand River?but also the desire to cater to the digital world of learning wherein production, creation and play claim the space traditionally occupied by the silent consultation of stored books. RDHA came to the project with a portfolio of library buildings and renovations, including their Governor General?s Award-winning work on the Bloor/Gladstone Library in Toronto, a 1,115-square-metre addition to a listed heritage building. In Cambridge, the project called for the transformation of a skillfully executed granite-and-limestone post office designed by Dominion architect Thomas Fuller (1823-1898), who worked on Ottawa?s Gothic Revival Library of Parliament. Built in 1885 and designated a National Historic Site in 1983, the Galt Post Office was part of an effort to stake a federal presence through monumental buildings on ke...