59 Carden St.

Baker Street library concepts

Posted by Laura

Three preliminary concepts were presented for the new central library tonight. All proposals feature an underground public parking garage and a new street bisecting the site to connect Wyndham to Baker. The new street would require the city to purchase a residential-commercial property north of the old post office on Wyndham Street.

The concepts allow for phased development.

Here are the concepts:

Library in the park

• Four-storey library nestled in a 0.6-acre park
• No street frontage
• One residential building with 110 to 130 units
• Commercial potential in library, condos

Library in the middle

• Four-storey library at the centre of the Baker Street site
• Library has frontage onto a new street proposed to bisect the site
• Half-acre park
• Two residential buildings with 140 to 160 units in total
• Commercial potential in library, condos

Library on Wyndham

• Four-storey library has frontage onto Wyndham Street
• City has to acquire four properties north of the old post office on Wyndham, up to and including the large cowboy bar
• Residential building behind the library with a small courtyard
• 0.4-acre park
• A second residential building with a private two-level parking garage
• 200 to 230 residential units on site
• Commercial potential in library, condos

"Our books finally had a fitting home"

Posted by Magda
You may have seen our video from the library's 125th celebrations. You can hear the entire James Gordon song here.

"Guelph needs a new library -- yesterday"

Posted by Magda
It's an editorial that reads, at least in parts, like it could been in today's paper: "Guelph needs a new library -- yesterday."

Except it was published Aug. 19, 2000.

The editorial suggests the library should've started long ago working on setting up a new branch, but argues that can be fixed now by fast-tracking the process. It also says council is about to vote on putting the $11 million cost of the project into the capital budget for the next five years.

An interesting read: Download new_library.pdf

The benefits of renting

Posted by Magda
Councillors last week amended a recommendation to lease space for the library in a future complex on Baker Street. They decided it should be left open-ended, so the city could either decide to lease the space or to own it.

That surprised me. Norm McLeod, the chief librarian, told me last week that Guelph had set up its four branches for the cost it's taken other libraries to set up a single branch, largely because our branches are in leased space.

There's no doubt a bunch of confounding issues here -- the difficulty of finding a developer to build what the city envisions, for one. But if leasing really is so much cheaper, the city would be well-served by strongly weighing that option.