Agincourt District Library

Making a place to read, to meet people and connect together as a community usually starts with a plot of land. When we were asked to design this 2,700 square meter neighbourhood library, we had an organized client, a well-defined program of requirements, a fixed budget and a schedule. What we didn’t have was a site.

As a part of a complex agreement with the City, several of Canada’s largest developers had promised to provide a suitable site for a new library within an ambitious mixed-use development. For many months, the developers and their designers proposed, negotiated, revised, amended and reconsidered. We coveted a triangular parcel, awkward and residual to the developers’ primary needs, but central to an as yet unbuilt community.

We sketched a design that made no assumptions about the scale and character of the future adjacent developments. Uncertain views and unknown neighbouring uses suggested to us a building that looked inward. At the heart of our design, we placed a huge pyramidal skylight above a two storey rotunda.

Organized on two triangular floor plates around this brilliantly daylit volume are circulating collections. To the south are staff facilities and a grand staircase leading to supervised reference collection and study spaces. On the east, dramatic single storey spaces for children and multi-purpose community uses. Cutting across the entire site, a red vaulted prism houses shared support spaces such as washrooms, exit stairs and mechanical rooms.

Today, this community library anchors a flourishing neighbourhood of 60,000. For its imaginative planning and forward-looking approach to context, the project was awarded a City of Scarborough Urban Design Award. Agincourt District Library boasts the highest circulation among all of the 98 City branches. It’s sometimes difficult to find a newspaper to read.

‘More than just a shared living room, this public library is one of Toronto’s greatest cultural treasures.’ – ‘The Origami’