The Halifax Central Library is a public library in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is located on the corner of Spring Garden Road and Queen Street in Downtown Halifax. It serves as the flagship library of the Halifax Public Libraries, replacing the Spring Garden Road Memorial Library.
A new central library was discussed by library administrators for several decades and approved by the regional council in 2008. The architects, a joint venture between local firm Fowler Bauld and Mitchell and Schmidt Hammer Lassen of Denmark, were chosen in 2010 through an international design competition. Construction began later that year on a prominent downtown site that had been a parking lot for half a century.
The new library opened in December 2014 and has become a highly popular gathering place. In addition to a book collection significantly larger than that of the former library, the new building houses a wide range of amenities including cafés, an auditorium, and community rooms. The striking architecture is characterised by the fifth floor's cantilever over the entrance plaza, a central atrium criss-crossed by staircases, and the building's transparency and relationship to the urban context.
The library won a Lieutenant Governor's Design Award in Architecture for 2014 and a Governor General's Medal in Architecture in 2016.
History
Planning
The Spring Garden Road main library, opened in 1951, had been considered inadequate by library administrators for several decades. The first report mentioning a replacement building was published in 1971. An expansion built in 1974 was quickly outgrown. A 1987 assessment noted that the spaces within were "self-contained and inflexible" and that "study space and comfortable reading areas are presently the focus of serious public complaint ... services are cramped and over crowded."
In the mid-1990s the municipalities of Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, and Halifax County were amalgamated, and a new regional library board was created. In 1995, the Joint Amalgamation Committee of the merged libraries "agreed that a new central library would be needed to serve the new Halifax Regional Library system and that the site should remain in the present downtown area." They cited numerous problems with the original building. In addition to its small size (), technological improvements were hampered by poor wiring and difficulty laying cable in mid-floor locations. Accessibility was poor due to the numerous stairs, levels, and an undersized elevator. Other problems with the building included leaks, asbestos, inoperable windows, the lack of a sprinkler system, inadequate climate control, ceilings as low as , and the lack of numerous services found at other modern libraries.
Following the merger, the new library board undertook extensive planning for a new facility in the hope that a new central library might be part of the 1999 commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the city. The library board commissioned an architectural study, released in 1997, recommending a new central library of approximately after concluding a renovation of the existing library would "not result in significant cost savings" and would lead to a less efficient building. Furthermore, it recommended building the new library on a different site in order to avoid costly temporary relocation. This study considered six different sites for the new library and recommended the lot at Queen and Clyde Streets, then a municipal parking lot. The projected cost of construction was just short of $24 million at 1997 prices.
The recommendation for a new library was echoed in a 2004 needs assessment and master plan study for the overall library system. The central library was identified as the "first priority" for the library board in terms of capital development, with implementation recommended by 2009. The study found agreement among survey respondents that the library should be located in downtown Halifax, being the core of the region and an anticipated area of growth in the regional plan.