Home > Vancouver Library Square

1 Design and Construction

The Library Square Project was the largest capital project ever undertaken by the city of Vancouver. The decision to build the project came after a favorable public referendum in November 1990.

The City then held a design competition to choose a design for the new building. The design by Moshe Safdie was by far the most radical design and was the public favourite. The inclusion of the office tower in the design was required in order to pay for it and as part of a deal with the federal government to obtain the land, the federal government has a long term lease on the high rise office tower portion of the project.

Construction began in early 1993 and was completed in 1995. In addition to its function as the central branch of the city's public library system, the one square block project also includes an attached office high-rise, retail shops, restaurants, and underground public parking.

2 Location

The building is located in the eastern portion of the Vancouver Central Business District. The address of the library is 360 West Georgia Street, and the Office tower is addressed at 300 West Georgia Street.

The Square is bordered by Robson Street, Homer Street, West Georgia Street, and Hamilton Street. Across West Georgia Street is Canada Post. Across Hamilton Street is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Across Homer street is the Centre for Performing Arts (formerly the Ford Centre for Performing Arts) also designed by Moshe Safdie as a complementary building to library square.

3 Critics

Many architects critisize the building as being overly derivative with inappriate symbolism. However, the public generally likes the building and it is a favourite for tourists.

4 Statistics

Library building (including retail, daycare, and parking)

• 9 stories
• 37,000 square metres (398,000 square feet)
• the 1.5 million books, periodicals, and other reference materials are moved through the building by vertical and horizontal conveyors
• 51 km of cable are laid throughout the building, including a fibre opticAn optical fiber in American English or fibre in British English is a transparent thin fiber for transmitting light. Fiber optics is the branch of science and engineering concerned with optical fibers. The optical fiber can be used as a medium for telecom backbone
• seating capacity: 1200+
• 700+ parking stalls and many bicycle racks
• top 2 floors currently leased by the British ColumbiaBritish Columbia or simply B. French: la Colombie-Britannique is the westernmost of Canada's provinces. It was the sixth province to join the confederation of Canada (in 1871). As of 2004, the population was 4,168,123 British Columbians . Geography Its ca government and scheduled for future library expansion
• approximate cost: CADThe Canadian dollar CAD or C is the unit of currency of Canada. It is divided into 100 cents (¢). History Canada decided to use the dollar instead of a pound sterling system because of the ubiquity of Spanish dollars in North America in the 18th century a $107 million

High-rise

• currently occupied by the CanadianCanada historically the Dominion of Canada is the second-largest, and northernmost, country in the world. It is a decentralized federation of 10 provinces and 3 territories, governed as a constitutional monarchy, and formed in 1867 through an act of Confe government
• approximate cost: CAD $50 million