Bibliothèque Gabrielle-Roy, Québec

Bibliothèque Gabrielle-Roy in 2012, original design by Gauthier, Guité, Roy. Image credit: Aquastephie, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons The first central library of the Québec City public library network was built in 1983 by Paul Gauthier, Gilles Guité and Jean-Marie Roy. It was the first library to benefit from a provincial subsidy covering 50% of construction costs, part of the ambitious “Plan Vaugeois”, an initiative to help francophone Québec libraries catch up to the rest of the world after a century of stifled growth imposed by the Catholic clergy and complicit government officials. As the vanguard of this renewal, the Gabrielle-Roy library included several revolutionary innovations for its time. Centred on the user rather than on the collections, it was a true “third place” with generous opening hours, a space for exhibitions and a theatre with programming late in the night. The city also saw the new library as a catalyst for urban renewal, opting to place it in the…