Idea Exchange Old Post Office was included in Azure magazine’s The 10 Projects that Defined a Decade of Canadian Architecture, as one of the decade’s most memorable Canadian architecture projects.
“What does a library without books look like? In taking over a former post office in Cambridge (originally built in 1885 overlooking the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario), Toronto studio RDHA’s answer was two-fold: First, renovating the once derelict masonry building and, second, adding a series of crisp glass additions that shape the heritage structure into a 21st-century institution.
In lieu of traditional stacks, creative studios occupy the lower level, with the main floor housing the café and core reading room (and almost appearing to slide off the embankment). Above sit the discovery centre and a suspended glass reading room that dramatically cantilevers toward the water’s edge. A makers space fills the pre-existing attic, below angular wood bracing trimmed in brilliant white. As the inaugural recipient of the AZ Award for Adaptive Re-Use, Idea Exchange expertly celebrates and elevates its heritage foundation – firmly anchored in the present while looking on toward the future.”