Signal Hill Library

The brief for the new branch library arrived with a single request from the community: make it feel like the old one, which everyone loved and nobody could save. The old one was a 1927 Carnegie building — high ceilings, windows everywhere, and a front step that functioned as a public square.

We kept the proportions and updated the rest. A single timber roof floats over a column-free reading room, the children\u2019s wing opens onto a garden, and the front step is now a proper plaza with shade, power and Wi-Fi.

Construction starts this autumn. The design was tested against the neighbourhood\u2019s own use — the meeting rooms are booked almost every evening, which the architects take as the highest form of approval.