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The story of the revitalization of Edmonton Public Library (EPL's) downtown branch
- 1. The Story of the Revitalization of EPL’s downtown branch L'histoire de la revitalisation de la succursale du centre-ville de l'EPL Tina Thomas Edmonton Public Library Executive Director, Strategy & Innovation 5/5/2020
- 2. 2 Quick Facts / Faits saillants
- 3. A Service Edmonton Uses Un service utilisé par Edmonton 3 More than Rec Centers, Festivals, Sports Teams combined / Plus que les centres de loisirs, les festivals, les équipes sportives combinés 15.4
- 4. 4 11 Edmonton’s most used service / Le service le plus utilisé à Edmonton
- 5. 5 THE CONTEXT / LE CONTEXTE
- 6. 6 Deteriorating Infrastructure Détérioration des infrastructures
- 7. 7 "The time has passed when square boxes with minimal features and lame landscaping are acceptable. Our tolerance for crap is now zero." Mayor Stephen Mandel, delivering his state of the city address, April 20, 2005
- 8. 8
- 9. 9 Mill Woods Fabulous support/ Un soutien fabuleux $100,000,000
- 11. 11
- 12. 13 Stanley A. Milner Library
- 13. Stanley A. Milner Library
- 14. 15
- 15. 16
- 16. 17 $62.5 million 2014/2013 – Curtain Wall
- 17. Challenges • No Community Engagement / Pas d'engagement communautaire • No Functional Program / Pas de programme fonctionnel • Budget very tight / Budget très serré • Limited fundraising / Levée de fonds limitée 18
- 18. Community Consultation 19 Visioning Session 2,000+ participants, ~10,000 points of feedback Branch Consultation Events Online Survey COE Insights Milner Staff SessionThink Tank
- 19. Top Interest Areas / Domaines d'intérêt principaux 20
- 20. 21 People are looking for a place to spend time / Les gens cherchent un endroit pour passer du temps “For many the library seems THE OPPOSITE OF LONELINESS. A place to connect and feel a part of something bigger than ourselves.”
- 21. 22
- 23. 24
- 24. Mitigation Strategies / Stratégies d'atténuation • Hiring freeze / Gel des embauches • Increased fundraising / Augmentation des collectes de fonds • Provincial and federal government support / Soutien des gouvernements provincial et fédéral • Scaled back programming / Réduction de la programmation 25
- 25. 26
- 26. Think Tank 27
- 27. RE-IMAGING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE / RÉINVENTER L'EXPÉRIENCE DU CLIENT …It’s what’s on the inside that counts / Ce qui compte, c'est ce qu'il y a à l'intérieur 28
- 28. 29
- 29. 30
- 30. 32 The Wall Immersive Digital Experiences
- 31. 33 Curated Content Squeeze more onto your book shelf! Mayor Don Iveson Chef Giselle Coutreau Journalist Jana Pruden Author Richard Van Camp
- 32. 34 Children’s
- 35. 38 Gaming
- 37. 40 The Wall IRL
- 38. 41
- 39. 42
- 40. 43 A view to the east…
- 41. 44
- 42. LESSONS LEARNED / LES ENSEIGNEMENTS TIRÉS DE NOTRE EXPÉRIENCE 45
- 43. Fundraising - $17.8M Goal: $10M Actual: $10.5M $10.5M $2.78M $4.55M Total Fundraising Community Fundraising Past Contributions Grants Community Fundraising 12,000+ Individual Donors
- 44. Key Learnings / Principaux Enseignements - Community engagement / L'engagement communautaire - Have functional program ready Préparer un programme fonctionnel - Don’t settle / Ne vous contentez pas de moins - Bring $$ to the table / Apportez $$ à la table - Reno's: expect the unexpected / s'attendre à l'inattendu - Do not release any renderings until 100% final Ne pas publier les rendus avant qu'ils ne soient définitifs à 100%. - Demonstrate other impacts of project – energy efficiencies/safety / Démontrer les autres impacts du projet - efficacité/sécurité énergétique - Opening Date – do not announce until 100% certain / Date d'ouverture - ne pas annoncer avant d'être certain à 100%. 47
- 46. Question? Yes Please! Tina Thomas– tina.thomas@epl.ca 49
Notes de l'éditeur
- I am going to talk about our experience with revitalizing our main downtown library. It’s been a real roller coaster – and in many ways it represents how NOT to do a project, as much as it does represent a good ending and ways to build a case for a capital project.
- 20 branches, 2 eplGO, 2 epl2go Budget $60M; 700 Staff Award-winning library. Innovator in the library world #1 – Library of the Year 2014 July 2014 EPL named Library of the Year Awarded by Library Journal Magazine and Gale Cengage Learning Highest honour to be given to a library First time outside of US WHY DID WE WIN? EPL is recognized as a place where new ideas come to life Where a history of innovative, customer-centered services and forward thinking is a critical part of daily operations
- I think I can guarantee that you will learn something new about the Edmonton Public Library during my discussion but let me start by giving you some quick info about us as an organization. We are mid sized organization in the city with approximately 700 staff, 21 locations, four literacy vans and a budget of $60 million. We are predominately funded through the municipal taxes. Similar to hospitals and universities, libraries are also charities with fundraising supporting our efforts to grow and expand services beyond what we get from governmental funding. We are also really well used with approximately 16 million annual visits and almost 50% of Edmonton households using the library in the past year. #2. Second Most Visited Place in Edmonton
- No surprise, when people use us they are often borrowing stuff. Pretty traditional library services but also still pretty well used. Edmontonians borrowed from EPL over 12 million times. That means every 3 seconds someone is borrowing from EPL.
- In the 90’s, EPL did not have strong support from its municipality in comparison to other CULC libraries – lower per capita operating funding.
- Similarly, decades went by where very little investment was made in EPL infrastructure. Not only was EPL unable to build new branches in growing areas of the city, existing infrastructure was in poor condition.
- And EPL was not alone in experiencing a lack of financial support. There was drought of public infrastructure during the 1990s, and what was built was not attractive. Until we elected a mayor in 2004 with a new vision for city architecture… "The time has passed when square boxes with minimal features and lame landscaping are acceptable. Our tolerance for crap is now zero." Mayor Stephen Mandel, delivering his state of the city address in April 2005. For years, we sat back and accepted mediocre, or downright awful, urban development. It was great to hear a mayor talking like this about our city, and what it could be.
- And over several years, this has led to exceptional Council support, credibility and pride. We had done incredibly well in raising our profile and communicating our value. Our current mayor describes EPL as a “brain factory”.
- So, a 2008 capital budget presentation (2009-14) resulted in Council approving $100M for 6 projects.
- Over the years, however, the mayor would frequently remark at the view he saw from his office window at City Hall.
- He saw the beautiful Winspear theatre The iconic Alberta Art Gallery The Citadel Theatre A new arena was under development Revitalization of downtown was underway. And…
- The Stanley A. Milner Library – the look of which he deplored. And he was not alone. Comedian Craig Ferguson stated on several tour performances on stage at the Winspear Centre that the Library was built to look like a 1950's medium security prison. Built as the City of Edmonton’s Centennial Project in 1967, the Milner Library was/is an important downtown anchor, attracting over 1.2 million visitors each year. While interior renovations had taken place over time, and an addition to the front of the library was constructed in 1999, which most architects despised, the exterior had largely remained untouched. So, in 2011, we went to City Council to request funding for the renewal of the exterior façade and some mechanical. City Council approved $1,002,000 to develop a schematic design for what was positioned as a “recladding project”.
- Trouble was, it wasn’t only in need of exterior renovations, and some mechanical and electrical upgrades that were impacted by exterior work. It had some significant interior issues, asbestos, did not meet building code, it was literally leaking energy, and most of all and was not meeting the needs of 21st century library users.
- Tension resulted. There was gratitude to the city for their generosity and a concern we couldn’t ask for too much / only ask for our fair share. Could we prioritize the downtown branch over other community needs outside the downtown?
- The building, it was said, had really good bones and was in good structural shape. But how would customers benefit from an exterior recladding and a building that looked nice on the exterior, but didn’t improve space for them. How could we sell an exterior cosmetic renovation to our users? A phrase we often expressed during these discussions …
- The EPL Board recommended the latter - re-visioning $62.M interior and exterior modernization In order to bring the building up to code and to ensure the public space met the needs of our customers. EPL also committed to funding $10.0 million through donations/sponsorships. This was presented to council in 2014 as part of the 2015-2018 capital budget request. And council approved the total $62.5M budget (incl $10M contribution from EPL). This design was based on a curtain wall concept with minimal interior renovation.
- Because of how the project evolved, initially as an exterior façade to a complete interior and exterior modernization, we had spent almost no time on the interior. No community consultations had been done And there was no functional program. The budget was exceptionally tight/not accurate. Costing was based on a hybrid – exterior only and interior/exterior renewal - not as comprehensive as it needed to be. Finally, while EPL had some fundraising experience, we had never done a $10M capital campaign.
- Top interest areas were identified.
- So we had some catching up to do. And we did a lot in 8 months before proceeding with detailed design. We undertook extensive community engagement (2015). In the summer of 2015, EPL staff embarked upon community consultations to gather feedback on the upcoming revitalization to the Stanley A. Milner Library. Responses from these conversations informed the creation of the What We Heard, Milner redesign consultation results. While members of all communities were represented in the extensive consultation process undertaken, we recognized the need and importance of implementing meaningful consultation specific to Indigenous Community Members. A survey was created using six questions from our original consultation and three new questions composed specifically for this group. In April, 2016, a survey was distributed electronically through the City of Edmonton’s Indigenous Relations Office. However the intent was for most responses to be gathered by EPL Community Librarians through in-person conversations. A total of 30 unique responses from a variety of community members were received through this process. Overall responses illustrate strong similarities with the feedback provided during the overall Milner consultations. Several additional comments/ideas were provided to help ensure Milner is more welcoming to Indigenous Peoples and the our space better reflects our Indigenous history. These ideas have been drafted into recommendations and actions for the various teams and departments at EPL. Displays that intentionally and explicitly welcome the indigenous community Enablement of indigenous ceremony, through spaces and services Commitment to education on indigenous history and culture Celebration of indigenous cultural heritage Support and exposure for local indigenous artists Opportunities to practice and learn indigenous languages Programs to support the hiring of indigenous staff
- View of Northwest Corner September 20, 2016
- As more detailed design occurred in 2015 and 2016, and a second costing exercise was conducted in early fall 2016, we were still facing a budget shortfall Reluctantly, we had go back to council for an additional ask –for higher than expected needed for hazardous abatement, demolition and mechanical costs A further $6.5 million was required $4.5 was reallocated from other EPL capital projects and $2.0M from City capital, bringing the total to $69 million. Construction commenced in 2017 and, as hazardous abatement and demolition occurred…. structural, mechanical and building code issues were discovered in the 51-year-old building, Additional structure was required on the lower level, resulting in unplanned demolition and abatement of the lower level Footing depth and width was not consistent with the 1966 as built drawings - entaled additional excavation , additional rebar, new concrete slabs These unexpected issues required an additional $15.54M million with funding coming from: $4.4M EPL (Grants and surplus); $11.14M form other City building rehab projects --- increased the budget from $69.0M to $84.54M unanimous support again So much for having good bones…. Exterior panel is shown on the left. It was assumed they could come apart in smaller sections and the brick was not attached. However, it turned out that the brick was completely precast in place back in 66. You can see the need to reduce the weight of the panels by cutting holes in them so the crane could lift them. The second photograph on the right shows one of the footings and the depth and width were not consistent with the 1966 asbuilt drawings – needed to be much wider and deeper. Required additional excavation , additional rebar, new concrete slabs
- All along we were aware the budget was inadequate, and knew we needed to mitigate risks As we would be closing Milner and redeploying Milner staff to a temporary service point and to other branches during construction, we instituted a hiring freeze in 2015 so positions were filled on a temporary basis only, and employees would be transferred to branches once we close. We began to pursue federal /provincial government support And we rallied our fundraising campaign, identifying EPL champions to help us. Scaled back on program Shelled spaces for culinary centre, black box studios and more. Couldn’t renovate the lower level Couldn’t finish the sixth floor As more detailed design occurred in 2015 and 2016, and a second costing exercise was conducted in early fall 2016,
- How will the revitalized downtown library reflect the changing needs of our community, better support the delivery of services our community needs and address the feedback received in our community consultation – that the library is a place to learn and spend time. While we will have extensive collection and spaces for people to read, meet, hang out, we will continue to offer innovative new services that allow customers to make, create, experiment and learn.
- Then we initiated and completed a functional program Now we were ready to proceed with detailed designed.
- A much larger Makerspace, allowing more opportunities for creating with leading-edge and emerging technologies such as 3D printing, sound and video production, and robotics, as well as new opportunities for fabrication. Additionally, there will be a separate gaming centre. Collections and reading/study spaces The Robert Tegler Trust has provided funding to support new outreach offices for our social workers. In addition to the outreach offices, we will also have drop-in space for other community agencies to use for helping vulnerable populations. Plans for a future culinary centre.
- Something we’re really excited about is this an experiential learning and digital display space, modeled after the CUBE. I had the chance to see this when I she visited Queensland University of Technology in Australia. “It consists of multi-touch screens extending 2 stories. It facilitates the opportunity for the public to discover, visualize and to even contribute to research projects. The public becomes the ‘citizen scientists’” and we are now collaborating with post secondaries and other organizations in Edmonton to plan the service model.
- Curated content from Local celebrities. Rotating features. Available in larger quantities. Easily accessible on the main floor.
- A much larger Makerspace, allowing more opportunities for creating with leading-edge and emerging technologies such as 3D printing, sound and video production, and robotics, as well as new opportunities for fabrication. Additionally, there will be a separate gaming centre. Collections and reading/study spaces The Robert Tegler Trust has provided funding to support new outreach offices for our social workers. In addition to the outreach offices, we will also have drop-in space for other community agencies to use for helping vulnerable populations. Plans for a future culinary centre.
- Quite the ride.
- Has been a bit of a roller coaster, but we did get to where we needed to be. And we have a long list of things we would have done differently and definitely things we did well: Our learnings: Build relationships Demonstrate value of library Credibility/Trust Community engagement Have functional program ready Don’t settle Reno's = expect to find the unexpected Conduct feasibility study for fundraising Bring $$ to the table Demonstrate other impacts of project – energy efficiencies/safety Don’t release any renderings until you are a 100% certain that’s the final rendering Opening Date – don’t announce until you are absolutely certain Resilience and go with the flow – expect the unexpected.