Preliminary plans for a new library here, including a used bookstore and coffee counter, a teen lounge, and a community room, were unveiled at a public meeting at the Fort Frances Museum last Thursday night.
The one-storey option includes a large circular area containing the circulation desk, computers for searching the catalogues and for Internet research, and reference materials.
The outside wall of the circular room will have many windows for natural light, with work and study tables set up in front of them, as well as a fireplace facing a lounge and reading area.
The centre of the circle will house the newspapers and periodicals.
The two-storey option, which involves renovating and adding to the existing library on Church Street, also includes the used bookstore and coffee counter, teen lounge, and community room, but also would have stairs and an elevator.
Both designs are wheelchair accessible, and include two separate study rooms: one for quiet study and the other for group study.
Both also feature a large children’s library complete with a story circle.
“We’re used to having a large children’s library and we didn’t want to compromise on that,” said chief librarian Margaret Sedgwick.
Back in January, Sedgwick toured eight or nine libraries in southwestern Ontario to get ideas for the new designs.
“It’s amazing what you gain from this kind of tour,” she noted. “We saw new and fresh approaches to traditional library services.
“Most libraries [we saw] had a fireplace,” she said, adding many also had large circular rooms similar to the one described above.
“We just fell in love with it,” she remarked.
In both plans, the used bookstore, coffee counter, and community room will be accessible from the exterior—meaning they can be used even when the library is closed.
Sedgwick also is hoping there will be room to plant a Reading Garden.
Both sets of drawings are preliminary and can be adjusted once a location is acquired. But just which design will be used, and where it will be erected, has yet to be determined.
“We’re still struggling with location,” said John Stephenson, an architect with Kuch, Stephenson, Gibson, and Malo of Thunder Bay, who presented the drawings to the library board and interested residents last Thursday night.
The location chosen will determine whether the one- or two-storey option will be used.
The expansion and renovation option would mean making use of the Ontario Realty Corp. (ORC) lands located behind the Land Titles building between the Fort Frances Clinic and the courthouse.
“The ORC land is awkward because of the existing Land Titles building. We’ve talked about acquiring that building,” said Stephenson, adding this option is theoretical at this point.
If acquired, the ORC land could be used either as a parking lot for an expanded library or as the location of a brand new library.
Stephenson also noted that if the board decided to go with the renovation and expansion option, the library would have to be closed for 10 months to a year to make changes to the existing structure.
“The entire heating and cooling systems will have to be taken out. The same goes for the wiring,” he explained.
In a closed meeting following the public session, the library board narrowed down its options to the Alexander MacKenzie School property and a Front Street site near the new Riverwalk condominium project in case it backs building a new library altogether instead of renovating and expanding the existing site.
“The Front Street property is second [choice] because it would require a two-storey building,” Sedgwick noted. “We prefer a one-storey because of staffing efficiencies.”
While the one-storey design features lots of open space and few interior walls, the two-storey one is more compartmentalized and would require staff on both floors.
The current drawings allow for 1,600 square metres (17,200 square feet) for the one-storey building and 1,511 square metres (16,266 square feet) for the two-storey one.
The library board also will be looking into a Central Avenue property owned by Abitibi-Consolidated Inc., located next to the Fort Frances Times.
The expected cost for a brand new library is $3,539,960 while the projected cost for renovating and expanding the current one is $2,700,655, including $1,046,760 in renovations to the existing structure.
These estimates do not include land costs.
“I think the best value is going to come from building a brand new building,” Stephenson said.
The next step is for Stephenson and the library board to finalize their report with a recommended size, a proposed budget, and suggestions on where the funding will come from.
Stephenson will present the final report to town council at the end of August.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
