Like many suburban libraries, the boxy Toronto Public Library (TPL) Albion branch in Etobicoke, Ontario, had evolved over the years into a heavily trafficked, all-ages community centre. The demographically diverse suburb?s large immigrant families, many jammed into tiny apartments, were relying heavily on the library?s space and computers; small business owners were operating their virtual companies out of reading rooms; and teens have taken refuge from gang rivalries there in what they view as a neutral zone.
Albion District Library by Perkins + Will. Photo by Doublespace Photography.
In 2013, when TPL officials declared that they would close the local branch for two years to complete a long over-due renovation, local residents expressed their feelings in no uncertain terms. They said they?d rather leave it unrenovated than close it for that long, recalls Susan Martin, the TPL?s manager of branch capital planning. Lead architect Andrew Frontini of Perkins+Will Canada worked with TPL to devise an elegant alternative: erecting a new structure in the parking lot immediately to the west of the existing building. The 1970s-era Albion branch had an adjacent 120-space parking lot, but a 2013 user survey revealed that most patrons arrived on foot or by transit. That finding compelled TPL to commission the new structure on the little-used parking lot instead, which allowed the branch to remain open during almost all of the rebuilding process. The new branch, which opened earlier th...