McGregor Park Public Library Reconstruction

Address: 2219 Lawrence Avenue East
Architect: ZAS Architects Inc.
Landscape Architect: P.F. Kaudewitz Landscape Architects
Client: Toronto Public Library

Project Description

The library massing was developed as an articulated glass trapezoid, stretching along façade of the community centre, showcasing the library's internal functions and positioned with the greatest degree of proximity and transparency to the street. The existing streetscape of sidewalks and transit stop were considered in the site plan, linking walkways between street and building in a direct and convenient manner.

Beneath the sloped roof, a cantilevered pedestrian canopy is suspended from the main roof, providing shelter above the ramped walkway that leads to the main entrance. This collage of building elements creates a beacon-like effect, particularly notable during the library's evening hours, where the combination of clear and fritted glass allows direct views, accented by the overall luminosity of the lighting within.

A combination of natural and artificial lighting strategies has produced a comfortable and memorable community space in this library.

Along with an abundance of glazing, random textures of masonry units are used along the base of the library, contrasted by metal panel that clads the cantilevered roof. Galvanized steel detailing of the exposed structural steel completes the varied and complementary palette of materials.

Jurors' Comments

In a gesture that helps heal and mend a heavily stressed swatch of suburban fabric in Scarborough, the architects replaced a stand-alone library building with a structure knit firmly into an adjacent community centre. While providing a common interior place open to activities as various as playing basketball and reading a book, the library also uses an inverted V-shaped roof and other strong visual elements to assert the values of community and learning in otherwise homogenous suburban context.