Last week, I was asked to participate in a panel for the National Capital Association of Law Libraries on the topic of library renovations. As some of you may know, the Library of Parliament has undergone significant renovations in the last few years, and will actually be moving out of Centre Block for the duration of their upcoming renovation work. Our renovation was nothing like the scale of their project, but we did have some similar experiences in renovating a library all the same.

As I was preparing for the panel, I put together some before and after shots of the library, and it was staggering to look at the pictures so closely side by side. Our renovation project is slowly creeping toward the finish line (we have some heating issues to resolve, and I’m sure we can agree that an Ottawa winter without proper heating wouldn’t be ideal!), and we still need to hang art work, but take a look at these four pictures from when you enter the library.

I’m struck by how narrow everything feels in the before photos. Many people remark on how huge the space feels when you walk in now, and it’s easy from these to see why!

Construction on Phase 2 of the renovations project continues to march forward, and I’ve recently been through the space to take a look. Back when Phase 1 was still being renovated, we had to come into the space far more frequently, so I was able to get more photos. For the second half of the project, my trips in are far more irregular, but it does mean I see more significant changes every time I venture in!

Today’s throwback quite honestly makes me shudder. I’m talking of course about the old coat storage area / corridor when you walked into the lounge. Behold!

Before:

Those dingy ceilings, the inadequate storage, the poor lighting, those carpets! I don’t think any of us will miss any of those. From standing in this perspective now, the view is quite different …

After:

Yes, that’s the same area! We’ve moved the coat storage right out of there (see below for more on coat storage), and raised the ceiling up to the slab. When all is said and done, there are going to be beautiful new light fixtures, new flooring, and our donor wall will be on the wall where the coat closets were. It feels so spacious and bright through this area now – I really can’t wait to see it all finished. For those wondering, to the left is the space for our new training rooms. The perspective on that is a bit hard to show right now, so you’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the reveal there.

So as for coats, as it’s now getting into coat season, let’s look at the new coat storage options!

When all is said and done, there will be three coat closets available.

In the lounge, two of the three closets are currently being constructed. You can see these below (pardon the bad angles – it’s not easy to get a shot of them!):

The third, and biggest, coat closet is located in the library, immediately to your left when you enter the front doors. That space is already open for business, and since this picture was taken, actually has hangers!

In total, these three rooms will provide greater storage capacity for coats that we had previously. This should alleviate the coat mess that erupted every winter in the old lounge. Also not pictured above are new stools currently on order for this space, to aid in boot and shoe removal in the winter months. We will be cracking down on items left overnight in the closet, however: there were far, far too many items left behind and creating clutter in the old lounge, and we hope to keep the new space clean and running smoothly.

Visitors to the Library have been raving about our new space, but construction carries on in Phase 2 of our renovations. We haven’t shown too many pictures of the work being done in the Lounge side of the space (simply because we don’t have access to the space like we did to the library), so here are a couple of new before and afters! This side has enormous change happening, and the biggest might be how fresh it feels! So much fresh air and natural light!

Before:

These shots are looking into the library from the Lounge doors. There were cubicle offices along most of the windows, blocking all of the light and views, and lots of bookshelves. Unfortunately, many of the books back here were seldom-used, and aisles became overflow storage.

After:

The lounge will now be extending into this space, and we’ve taken everything off the windows! If you’ve been into the library and seen our massive lights, stay tuned: there will be large, equally impressive lighting going into this space as well. In addition to the nice, new soft seating we’ll have, we’ll also have a long, bar-height counter with stools and power outlets along the windows for a portion of the space (essentially, along the windows where that red work platform is in the first After photo). We expect those seats will be very popular, as the view from this room is pretty great.

Construction of this space is still on schedule, so provided everything continues to go well, we should be ready to welcome you in this fall!

We should have some exciting news on the renovations project coming soon (subscribe to the CCLA newsletter for all the latest info, of course), but in the meantime, here’s a recent progress shot for you.

This was the old view when you came in through the front doors. Us library staff never particularly liked that we were tucked around the corner, which lead to plenty of awkward moments of people coming in and not knowing where anyone was to talk to.

Continue reading →

Things are really starting to take shape in Phase 1 of our renovations project. It’s remarkable how quickly walls go down, come back up, and completely change the look of the space. I have a couple of photos here from before, and the current state of affairs. I’ll also answer a couple FAQs down below!

Before:

Visitors to the library will, of course, recognize where the bathrooms were, the old hallway into legislation (or more accurately for many people, the way over to the lounge), and the inside of the copy room. These walls are mostly all gone now, except for that rounded bit of wall in picture two (take note of that – it’s a load-bearing pillar). Continue reading →

I can’t help it – I’m officially obsessed with the goodies I’ve found looking through old scans of The Ottawa Journal. Our last TBT was about the 1940 golf tournament; today’s is even older.

We’ve been deep in the weeds here at the CCLA with renovation planning over the last few months. Finding this news clipping from the December 14, 1895 Ottawa Journal on what was surely the first CCLA “renovation” has totally made my day:

Pictures of this “model law library” are at the very, very top of my wish list (sadly, none exist that we know of). I’m also amused that there was concern even then about room for lawyers to meet with their clients – this has to be one of the most frequently requested things at our current day courthouse!

In happy news, the move out from judges’ chambers was in fact approved by the gaol and building committee: