City Library, Bradford
When asbestos was discovered in Bradford Central Library in 2012, the Council decided to move to a new smaller site in Centenary Square.
The new City Library on two floors had to house around 60,000 items, so in conjunction with the Council Architects Department and the FG Library Design Team a floor plan was designed to ensure the stock figure was met.
Along with this, an area for study and IT use (40 places in total) was created, together with additional easy seating areas for relaxed reading. Sightlines and good access were achieved - both from staff and customer perspectives - by intelligent design and particular positioning of the shelving.
The brief required a soft traditional but modern look, and the timber Calypso shelving system was selected. Maple and grey were the chosen finishes along with flexible 3-way adjustable shelves.
All the double sided island units were on concealed castors with hinged plinths allowing easy access for movement and maintenance. Wow end panels were introduced to allow promotion of the book stock without taking up valuable floor space. Staff pods were placed on each floor to provide assistance, and a range of Freedom units were provided to promote newspapers and journals.