Saturday September 24th marked the grand opening of Bing Thom Architects’ latest project, the Surrey City Centre Library. Adjacent to the Central City project housing the SFU Surrey Campus, the new library is the first development in what will eventually include the new Surrey City Hall as well as a large public plaza, arts centre, parkade, and commercial space.
The library incorporates green features to achieve LEED certification, including a partial green roof to capture rainwater, huge external windows to provide natural light, and the capacity to add geothermal heating once the new City Hall is completed.
The library is also the largest in Surrey at 82,000 square feet, and the third largest in the Vancouver area, after the Bob Prittie Metrotown and Vancouver Central libraries. While this means that the new library will be able to hold an extensive 150,000 book collection, including materials in 17 languages, the design recognizes that library patrons seek more than just books at the library. It is designed as a focal point and meeting place for the surrounding community, and uses different levels of space to provide for public activities in the more open levels, to private reading and study in the more contained areas. The library incorporates many meeting rooms, a café (which library traditionalists will cringe at), and 80 public computers, and is built in such a way as to make people feel at ease.
Because of the time constraints placed on the funding of the project, BTA used a novel form of public consultation that dramatically reduced the completion time of the project while keeping it on budget. Social media such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter were used to engage the public and circumvent a lengthy public meeting process.
I checked out the madness at the opening, and I was very impressed by the sense of openness inside the building, despite the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds in the main atrium. Call it architectural white space if you will, but the less formal atmosphere of the library should do an excellent job at drawing a more diverse crowd inside the space, compared to some of the older, more cramped libraries in the city.
This entry was written by , posted on September 25, 2011 at 10:30 pm, filed under architecture and tagged Bing Thom, Surrey City Centre Library. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
If you’re starving for some new bands and the hottest tracks of the moment, check out my show New Indie Music on CJSF Radio! Every other Thursday from 6–8 PM I’ll be spinning new indie rock, pop, electronic, and a bit of hip hop.
Tonight’s show will feature rising stars such as Iceage, Youth Lagoon, Wu Lyf, and Pictureplane, I’ll be doing a spotlight on this year’s excellent Polaris Prize shortlist including winner Arcade Fire, and I’ll have some brand new tracks from the likes of Thom Yorke, Wild Beasts, Wavves, and Florence & The Machine. I’ll post the complete playlist in the comments after the show. If you need more reasons that that to tune in, be assured that I’ve been told I have a great radio voice!
You can tune in TONIGHT from 6–8 PM at 90.1fm, or listen to our live stream at cjsf.ca. If you can’t tune in for the show, it will be up as a podcast for a week after the show on cjsf.ca: go to the program guide, and navigate to the Thursday 18:00–20:00 slot (If you download it more than a week after, you’ll catch Pop-O-Pie Planet hosted by our very own station manager Magnus Thyvold — great show, and recommended listening as well!)
I’ve designed my logo and poster as a nod towards the timeless United Airlines logo design by Saul Bass, as well as the fantastic poster design by Shawn White for Vampire Weekend at the Sasquatch! 2010 music festival. Click the pic for a big version.
CJSF is a volunteer-run campus and community radio station broadcasting from Burnaby Mountain. Check out the website for our super-diverse program listings here: cjsf.ca
This entry was written by , posted on September 22, 2011 at 1:18 pm, filed under music and tagged New Indie Music. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Vancouver is gearing up for the West Coast’s premium residential design show. IDSwest will take over the Vancouver Convention Centre September 29 – October 2 and transform it into a design fan’s dream, featuring 200 exhibitors and keynotes speeches by some design heavyweights such as industrial designer and Red Dot award-winner Ross Lovegrove.
Last year’s event was host to over 30,000 visitors, and this year’s event is sure to be a hit. Head over to idswest.com for a drool-worthy look at the exhibitors for this year, from furnishings to interior design to architecture to art and media. The new green Vancouver Convention Centre should be a perfect setting for the show, which I’m sure will feature some great green and sustainable products, even designs crafted from the sail material at the old convention centre at Canada Place.
This entry was written by , posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:43 am, filed under design, upcoming and tagged IDSwest. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Mark your calendars for the next Vancouver Pecha Kucha night! It will be held October 20th at the Vogue, and tickets are already on sale for $15 at www.voguetheatre.com. The presenters should be announced soon, but tickets are sure to sell out before the event.
For more information on the Pecha Kucha nights, a global phenomenon of talks by leaders, scientists, artists, and activists, go to the Pecha Kucha website here
This entry was written by , posted on September 13, 2011 at 8:38 pm, filed under talks, upcoming and tagged Pecha Kucha. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
