Fort York gets the ultimate condo amenity: a flashy new public library
The new Fort York library, which will have its official ribbon-cutting on Thursday, will be Toronto Public Library’s 99th branch. (It would have been the 100th, had the city not shut down the Urban Affairs Library during 2011’s initial rush of Ford-induced budget panic.) Aside from being just generally good-looking, the KPMB Architects–designed building adds 16,000 square feet of community space to a burgeoning condo district whose residents have, until now, needed to walk a couple kilometers up Bathurst Street in order to get their library fix.
Appropriately, construction was funded with a combination of development charges and Section 37 money, meaning the bills were paid by some of the very same developers that filled the neighbourhood with new residents in the first place. The library is even located right at the base of one of those new residential towers, the Library District Condos, for which the long-anticipated opening of the branch has been a selling point. As amenities go, a brand-new, $9.2-million learning space is potentially a hell of a lot better than a party room.
Click through the gallery for a sneak peek at the interior. The new Fort York library will open to the public after a 10 a.m. ceremony on May 29.
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