A new flagship Central Library, set to open in 2020, will be a great opportunity for Ottawa to build a cutting-edge community hub.
A key question: Where should it be built? Our answer: It must stay in the downtown core.
If the new library is constructed outside of Centretown, another branch library will not be put in its place for the community — leaving a large portion of Ottawa’s population without easy access to a vital information portal and public gathering place.
The city will eventually choose a location — possibly in partnership with Library and Archives Canada — from a list of 12 potential sites between the O-Train Trillium Line to the west, King Edward Avenue to the east and Gloucester Street to the south.
The city has shortlisted three potential sites, but those selections have not been made public and may not be revealed until November or even later.
The Centretown Citizens Community Association is insisting that the library stay close to the middle of Centretown because of the wide and diverse array of people who need easy access to library services. They’ve got it right. Those who reimagine a Central Library outside of the downtown core — meaning east of the Rideau Canal or west of Bronson Avenue — really aren’t thinking it through.
In an online survey by Nanos Research in 2015, 81 per cent of nearly 600 library card holders said they get to the main branch on Metcalfe Street by walking.
If the new Central Library is moved too far from its current location, then the existing users will be at a disadvantage. The library board must put these users at the forefront when making the final decision about the new central site.
Libraries offer a secure, calm atmosphere. Yet of the 12 long-listed sites, two are east of the Rideau Canal. If the new building is situated within one of Ottawa’s main tourists attractions — the Byward Market — then that level of safety and comfort could be compromised. And the Rideau branch is already located in that vicinity.
Five other potential sites are located west of Bronson Avenue. There has been an argument put forward that Ottawa’s centre of gravity could be moving west due to the development of LeBreton Flats and the Chaudière Islands. But these western sites are situated too far from the population that the library has served for decades. In order for the biggest majority to reap the benefits of a new library, the site must be close to the downtown core.
Recently, there has been a trend towards transforming big-city central libraries into diverse community centres rather than mere book repositories. Halifax built its new Central Library in 2014, a visually dynamic building with a music studio, a coffee shop nicknamed “Halifax’s living room” and an auditorium. Construction is under way in Calgary on a new library bisected by an LRT line.
Ottawa’s new Central Library should incorporate similar out-of-the-box features, moving away from traditional, dimly lit rows of bookshelves and towards an interactive, community-strengthening knowledge centre — in the centre of the capital.
The city can’t take away the heart of the Centretown community.