Public Libraries: Canada: "How Twitter And Facebook Helped Bing Thom Design A Public Library"

From a Co.Design Article:

In November 2009, Bing Thom, winner of Architecture Canada’s 2011 RAIC gold medal, Canada’s highest architectural accolade, was commissioned to build a $36M, 80,000 square foot library in this town southeast of Vancouver. BTA had previously built Surrey’s Central City, a project that included office space, a shopping center, and a university. Funds for the library project, provided by Canada’s Federal Infrastructure program, mandated that the money be used by required deadlines — or be lost.

Normally, a project of this magnitude would involve loads of public forums, PowerPoint presentations, and long-winded grandstanding by civic leaders. But with precious little time for standard bloviation, BTA instead launched a library website, a Facebook page, a YouTube presence, a Twitter account, and an RSS feed, and invited all comers to comment. They populated the sites with images of the project and invited viewers to post their own images and text of what they would like the library to look like in an online “ideasbook.” Librarians helped the digitally challenged to scan and upload the pictures they wanted the committee to see.

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Filed under: Libraries, Public Libraries, Video Recordings