Report recommends a new building on a new site for Ottawa's aging library

Ottawa’s central library should be in a new building and a new location.

That’s the recommendation of a major staff report to the Ottawa Public Library Board.

It includes the assessment by Library Strategies International that a city the size of Ottawa should have a central library of at least 132,000 square feet to offer all the programs and services of a modern library.

The current main branch, built in 1974, is around 109,000 square feet.

The report concludes that the best option going forward is to move out of the existing, 41-year-old facility at the corner of Metcalfe and Laurier and build somewhere else.

It also recommends a site – city-owned land at 557 Wellington Street, putting the new library near the new Confederation LRT line. Library Board Chair, Tim Tierney, says they’ll use that site as a “baseline” to which any other possible sites will be compared.

The report also suggests that the cost of a new build versus redeveloping the existing facility is the same, around $86 million. It says even to simply maintain the building in its current state  would cost about $20 million.

The report goes to the Library Board for approval June 9^th.