Project Details
This project was selected as a Honor winner in ARCHITECT's 2024 Architecture & Interiors Awards, Interiors: Civic and Cultural category.
“It honored the original design and showed a lot of restraint. Looking at the original building, this vastly improves it in terms of lighting, visibility, openness, and navigation.” –Juror Brooke Horan
While the D.B. Weldon Library at Western University in London, Ontario, was a Brutalist icon of the 1960s, it had elements and features reflecting an outdated vision of academic libraries, ranging from limited access to fresh air and natural daylight and a shortage of spaces to support 21st century learning, among others. The university thus tasked Perkins&Will to make much-needed updates while still preserving and celebrating the library’s original architecture designed by John Andrews.
The most notable transformation is encountered at the getgo, with the formerly dark Great Hall now a bright and airy Reading Lounge. Perkins&Will achieved this by opening up and connecting the space to the previously enclosed mezzanine level which, in turn, is windowed. New lightened floors and a plethora of globe light pendants inserted into the existing deep ceiling coffers aid in this effort as well while accentuating the original Brutalist design. Varied slim and updated furnishings reflecting today’s resimercial trends create a welcoming, softer environment for students to engage in different styles of reading and study whether solitary or in groups.
On each level, the architects pushed both student and staff areas, including gathering and meeting spaces, toward the windows and skylights, to maximize daylight and views to outside. Even cellular spaces, which were pulled inward, benefit from light trickling in through glazed partitions. A less conspicuous but necessary update is expanded power and data access for laptop, mobile phone, and tablet computer use. Finally, upgraded mechanical systems enhance air quality throughout while reducing energy use by 30 percent. Together, these moves increase occupant comfort and, by extension, foster wellbeing.
PROJECT CREDITS:Project: Weldon Library Revitalization
Location: London, Ontario
Client/Owner: Western University
Architect and Interior Designer: Perkins&Will:1. Jon Loewen, Design Principal, OAA, MRAIC, LEED® AP BD+C
2. Martha del Junco, ARIDO, NCIDQ, LEED® AP ID+C
3. Andrew Frontini, Design Director, Principal, OAA, NSAA, FRAIC, LEED® AP BD+C
4. Alan Mortsch, Project Manager, OAA
With Cornerstone Architecture:5. Alison Hannay (Cornerstone Architecture), Principal, BES BArch, OAA,
MRAIC, LEED® AP (BD+C)
6. Jason McIntyre (Cornerstone Architecture), Associate Architect, OAA
Construction Start Date: 2021Construction End Date: 2023
Mechanical Engineer: Chorley & BissetStructural Engineer: VanBoxmeer & Stranges Engineering
Electrical Engineer: Chorley & Bisset
General Contractor: Tonda Construction
Lighting Designer: Chorley & Bisset
Acoustic Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
Size in Square Feet: 80,000 sq. ft. (renovated); 180,000 sq. ft. (total)Cost: $13.6M
MATERIALS AND SOURCES:Bathroom Fixtures: Grohe, Sloan, Franke, American Standard, American Specialties, Elkay
Carpet: Tarkett
Cabinets: Fenix
Acoustic Ceiling Tile and Metal Ceilings: Armstrong Ceilings
Countertops: Caesarstone, Corian
Porcelain Tile Flooring: Centura
Engineered Hardwood Flooring Stone Tile
Resilient Sheet Flooring: Upofloor
Furniture: Kielhauer, Haworth Furniture, Spacesaver
Lighting: Camman Lighting, Visa Lighting, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Signify, Gotham Lighting
Rift Cut White Oak Millwork: Archmill House
Paints and Finishes: Paint (Dulux)
Screens (Aluminum): Kawneer
Wallcoverings: Filz Felt
Bulletin Board Wallcovering: Forbo
Wall Moss: ByNature Design
Photographer: Scott Norsworthy | e: [email protected] | t: 416-939-4502
