Wychwood Neighbourhood Branch Library Restoration and Addition

Originally the library was a quiet sanctuary for books. Today’s library is more outward-focused and engaged with its community. It is a lively public space where people meet, make connections, and join events. We like the metaphor of the “community kitchen,” the place where the party happens, where everyone wants to be. The Wychwood Library, designed by Eden Smith and Sons in 1916, followed Arts and Crafts design principles. In comparison to typical public buildings of the day, it was simple, well-proportioned, and stripped of unnecessary decorations. However, over time, the clarity of the original library was lost. A previous project had closed the original entry and obscured the south facade. We reinstated both and lowered the surrounding grade to match. This established the lower level as the main level, bringing the library in plane with the street and achieving full accessibility. The new addition was carefully inserted into this compact urban site, preserving the street presence of the original building, keeping back and below. A continuous skylight between the buildings retains the natural light inside the restored great hall while preserving the original form. The addition also takes material and geometric cues from the original, clad in slate similar to the original slate roof and picking up on the existing underlying geometry for its structural grid and the articulation of its façade. At the same time, the addition offers a new space between the library interior and the local neighbourhood. Garden walls and planters are used to create a sheltered entry court complete with services to host concerts or small outdoor events. Existing between the interior laptop bar and the busy street, this space extends the potential activity of the library to the outdoors, as well as inviting the neighbourhood to explore inside. From the interior, visitors have a unique vantage point to spectate lawn bowling matches from the exterior reading terrace. Integrated into the southeast corner of the library, the Wells Hill Lawn Bowling club house is as convenient to visit as the library book drop if patrons are interested in participating themselves. The project was designed according to Toronto Green Standards, meeting energy performance and storm water management requirements. Included in this design was the implementation of vegetative roof systems as well as civil infrastructure to capture and retain storm water on-site. The completed building which is three times the size of the original uses less energy than the original, and by repurposing the original building fabric preserves the embodied carbon. The completed project forms one unified space that embodies both the history and the evolution of the library. The project restores the clarity of the original, with its book-lined hall and cozy fireplaces, and pairs this with a contemporary twin that is open to the street and new possibilities. It integrates the best of both worlds.