Vancouver Public Library - Central Library

This guide to the Vancouver Public Library's Central branch traces the 1990 public vote that let citizens pick their own library design, and how architect Moshe Safdie's Colosseum-inspired proposal split public enthusiasm from architecture critics like Trevor Boddy. It follows the deal that bolted a twenty-one-story office tower onto the project to fund it, and the building's opening at Library Square on May 26, 1995. Look up at the ringed stone wall and imagine which side of that argument you would have taken.