Second library project in Canada this year for Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

Denmark-based Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects has won the competition to design the new Highlands Branch Library in Edmonton, in collaboration with local architects Marshall Tittemore Architects. It is their second library project in Canada, following the Halifax Central Library in Nova Scotia won earlier in the year.

Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects and Marshall Tittemore Architects will be working with the City of Edmonton and Edmonton Public Libraries on the 1,400-sq.-m. Highlands Branch Library project, due for completion in 2012. “We are constantly developing the way we think about libraries and how they will change and adapt to future trends and needs of the communities they serve. Part of this process is ensuring we work with libraries across all scales from branch libraries and central libraries to university libraries,” said founding partner Morten Schmidt.

Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects is renowned for the extension of the Royal Library in Copenhagen, Denmark, and has also designed Halmstad Library and the extension of Växjö Library in Sweden. Ongoing library projects include Urban Mediaspace, Scandinavia’s biggest public library, in Aarhus, Denmark as well as University of Aberdeen New Library in Scotland, UK.

 

With a budget of approximately $5.5 million, the Highlands Branch Library project will include landscape architect Carlyle & Associates and Read Jones Christoffersen (structural engineers), Smith + Andersen (mechanical engineers), Hemisphere Engineering (electrical engineers), and ISL Engineering (civil engineers).