Stanley A. Milner Library | ?m | 6s | EPL | Teeple Architects

What do you think of this project?

  • Total voters
    62
kcantor said:
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regardless of how this was inflicted on us - the board and their consultants not being strong enough to ask/demand for enough money to do it right, council not being prepared to approve enough money, neither body being able to read a set of drawings, or a fear of public backlash because they mistakenly think they know what's important to the public - it is still inexcusable.

i for one would rather do with less things than live in a city full of "good enough things for edmonton". someone - or a series of someones - made the choices between this and what this should have been, between this and the new police station (both awarded to the same design firm), between something that needs to be excused and a flagship buildings as a statement of how we do things in edmonton.

if we are not prepared to mock what is mockworthy (along with the attitudes and the history and choices that allows mockworthy to be built) all we will get is more of the same. almost everything that is wrong in a city that elected and reelected a mayor based on "no more crap" is exemplified in this building. i for one would rather wait a few more years for something than live with mistakes like this for decades.

instead of accepting what we shouldn't (whether that's the library, peregrine point, hall d, the bank of montreal site, the old baccarat casino et al), i say we "mock on" until we don't do things at all unless we're doing them right.
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Those are good points, and I do agree with you. I just worry that by only going after the execution, and not *why* it happened, we're dooming ourselves for more of the same. Do I think that we should have settled for this? Absolutely not. Do I think that we should tolerate this? Nope. And I definitely won't argue that the interior renovations justify the monstrosity that is the exterior. I just wish folks in Edmonton would have a little more self-reflection, and accept that if we don't change our attitudes towards spending, we won't get any different results. So I'm not defending the design so much as I'm arguing that the criticism shouldn't *stop* at the architects, or EPL, or council. Do they share part of the blame? Of course, and this should be acknowledged. But part of the issue also lies with the priorities and attitudes of many of our voters, and I think that ignoring this stops us from taking some very important lessons from this.
 
you and i are probably making the same argument albeit perhaps from the other side of the coin but from my perspective it isn't "folks in edmonton" that are to blame and that need to do more self-reflection. because to accept that means accepting that edmontonians are less sophisticated or caring or knowledgeable etc. that calgarians or vacouverites or winnipegers or torontonians. the difference is in their political leadership and the refusal of that leadership to accept that in areas like this they need to display leadership. they've done that - for better or worse - with lrt (on numerous occasions), with blatchford, with the coliseum, with zoning amendments, with rec centres and bridges and branch libraries and fire stations. no-one complains when they're well executed, only when they're not! we don't need a more sophisticated public, we need more sophisticated leadership. and we could probably pay for a lot of it simply by trading myriads of excess public consultation that primarily provide a voice for vested special interest groups for that kind of leadership.
 
An early rendering from a COE public meeting.
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It looks kind bad on a grey day from the outside. On sunny days, it's got kind of a glow/shine that looks nice. Overall, it's a pretty nice, modern library, all things considered.
 
bnfcream2014 said:
It looks kind bad on a grey day from the outside. On sunny days, it's got kind of a glow/shine that looks nice. Overall, it's a pretty nice, modern library, all things considered.
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Even without the sun it is retina damaging.

Inexcusable/indefensible value engineering and support from those who could have changed the path of this architectural travesty.
 
Yes, it is an another unfortunate example of what happens when you try to do things on the cheap. I hate to always compare to the city to the south, so also look at the spectacular library in Vancouver.

However, if you want to compare to another city closer to our size and more recent here is: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-new-central-library-photos-1.5985865

I don't know how we can fix this, but it needs it and I suspect it will involve more money, perhaps in 5 years or so when the ugh really sinks in. I think there needs to be a hall of shame to remind us not to mess up again.
 
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