New Calgary Public Library opens

CALGARY – Out with the old, in with the new; the Calgary Public Library’s newest hub near City Hall is open for business and it’s far from your average library.

The 240,000-square-foot building encapsulating the red LRT line between Victoria Park-Stampede and City Hall stations is home to more than 180 tonnes worth of books. The building also boasts a performance hall, reading room, meeting rooms, recording studios, a teen centre and kids library, and lots of public art.

Here’s what you’ll see in the new facility

It’s almost a complete reversal of what you’d expect a library to be, stacks upon stacks of old books bringing back memories of hours-long study sessions. This library has been reinvented with new technology and space for kids to be kids.

“We’ve got city council streaming on the third floor, we’ve got gaming going on in the teen area on the third floor, we’ve got places for kids to actually access technology. We’re going to be doing augmented reality and virtual reality,” said Calgary Public Library CEO Bill Ptacek.

“There is running in the library! It’s okay–you can run!” he laughed. “Kids can run in the library and they can play.”

And kids definitely won’t find any old-fashioned “be quiet” signs you might remember from your elementary school days in the Biblioteca’s jungle gym. But don’t worry–if you prefer peace and quiet, there’s a spot for you, too. The traditional features remain, like a quiet reading and study space on the top floor, old records and newspapers for budding historians, and lots of chairs to go read a book and sip a coffee.

A look at the art and architecture

After walking through the wooden arch out front, you’re greeted by a large lobby featuring an Indigenous-themed painting and a massive teardrop skylight. The building is wrapped in windows and filled with light, while staircases mimic the hills and mountains of Calgary’s surrounding landscape. In a word: impressive.

“It looks like the New York Public Library on steroids in many ways,” Ptacek said.

The CEO calls the wood-lined, natural-light-filled feat of engineering an “instigator of potential” for the people in the community. “There’s just so much about the building that’s going to be spectacular, but our goal was to take the spectacular building and make sure the experiences in the building matched the architecture on the outside.”

Ellen Humphrey, CEO of the Calgary Public Library Foundation, said the modern superstructure is the library Calgarians deserve. She said the building stands in stark contrast to libraries of the past where you would typically find a windowless, closed-in space.

“[This building] is a good metaphor for libraries: libraries help people move out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of wisdom, you know? This building speaks to that in spades, I think,” she said. Humphries also said the “heart and hub of the system” will serve as a catalyst of redevelopment for many other of Calgary’s libraries.

“Increasingly, we are able to build large, airy libraries and that would mean everyone has that same high-quality experience.” Speaking of large and airy, the sunlight flooding the open space seems the perfect illumination for a massive mural welcoming you at the front door.

The mural (above) is a reflection of the landscape Calgarians know and love and the centre piece features the artist’s direct inspiration–his wife and daughter. Keegan Starlight, a representative of the Tsuutina Nation, said he included his loved ones because family has always had a defining role in how Indigenous communities function, regardless of your background.

“And women have always been a central piece to that community,” he explained, adding the theme of the mural is “right on par” with what libraries do.

“You’ve got the knowledge keepers of the library and they know everything about the information that’s in here and the women are the exact same thing. They know everything that’s happening within the tribe, they take care of the children whether it be theirs or not. They are the knowledge keepers and they’re the ones that keep us grounded and that’s exactly what the library is.”

He said it was nerve-wracking when he first got the project, learning his piece would be at the door, the first thing visitors would see. Starlight coordinated with other artists responsible for the other two pieces on either side of his, making up the full mural. He said there were many meetings and phone calls trying to make sure all three parts looked cohesive. It didn’t turn out how he thought it would, though–he said it turned out better.

“I wouldn’t call it a happy accident, but it was perfect. The message is there. There’s a progression to each one of these [sections],” he said.

“You’ve got the past: we’re not stuck there, but we had our ways and we knew what we were supposed to do. You’ve got the camp in the background. In the present you’ve got the teepee is a little closer and we’re trying to reconnect with our culture. Then you have the future where now it’s got the children from the present. They’re older and they’re the knowledge keepers now–they’re passing on the wisdom.”

He said the venue might be the nicest one he’s seen in Calgary, and it will be a great place to learn.

Another piece of art in the library, in keeping with the Indigenous theme, is a looming, life-sized metallic sculpture of a bison. The beast is not just any old animal–it’s shaped out of letters from Treaty 7 nation languages.

Why are libraries important?

The Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC)–the land developer in the city’s East Village–played a big role in the development of the building, including helping with putting forward $70-million in funding. It also served as a project manager to help coordinate teams to help execute the development plans. President and CEO of the CLC, Michael Brown, said the library will fit in with the East Village community.

“First of all, there’s nothing more democratic than a library: it’s free, it’s open to everyone, it’s a space that doesn’t say, ‘you’re not good enough, you are good enough,’ it welcomes everyone,” said Brown.

“We have a community that has two drop-in centres… We have an established senior community that’s been here for years. Then we also have a bunch of new residents… To have the library in our backyard, to me, is a proof point in what we’re trying to build in the East Village.

He said the library will draw even more people to the area. “The library itself gets over 5,000 people a day through the old central library, they’ll get even more here.”

“I believe that some of the values that drove citizens to create libraries in the early part of the 20th century exist today–and that’s what everybody feels welcome and a sense of belonging here,” said Humphrey, pointing to her favourite part of the library: the TD Great Reading Room.

“I’m a better person for spending time in that space, that’s what I believe,” she said, laughing that she feels a sense of accomplishment having simply sat in the room.

Humphrey added the goal is to evolve even further and create more innovative programming for those spaces in the library. “There’s a whole different level of experience… what goes on inside. The library is working very hard and the foundation is helping the library reach out do more innovative programs than it’s ever done before so that we can really reach the hearts and minds of Calgarians.”

More and more people are signing up for library cards, according to Ptacek, who said the number of active users has jumped from 250,000 to over 670,000 over the last few years.

“Virtually everyone in the community” uses the library he said.

PHOTO GALLERY: Take a look inside the new public library

“It can be for the richest people in the community, the poorest people in the community, the most literate people in the community, the people that are just learning to read–we bring all of them together! If you’re homeless it doesn’t make any difference. As long as people act civilly and responsibly in the library then we have a great relationship.”

He said the library has a focus on kids in the area and making sure the young ones are ready for school.

“There are 90,000 kids in this community under the age of five and their ability to read and success in school is formed before they even go to school. The library is on a mission to work with those kids and get them ready to… read and ready to learn.” He added there will also be programs and lectures set up for post-secondary students as well through partnerships with MRU, University of Alberta, and the University of Calgary.

“You’ll have experiences here that will be so positive and so good, you’ll want to come back.” He said no one will limit you in what you can or cannot do, can or cannot access at the library, and that’s the entire purpose of a hall like this one.

“It’s all up to you. It’s the experience you create, we just set the stage for it.”

All in all, Ptacek said the hope is for the building to be a gathering place for people from all walks of life. “If you need to get together with somebody, the library is all about community and that can happen there.”

-with files from Tom Ross, 660 NEWS, and Crystal Laderas, CityNews