SOUTHAMPTON TOWN HALL + LIBRARY

The Town of Saugeen Shores awarded 3stones the architectural feasibility and conceptual design study for the most significant block of their downtown. The site contains the historic 100 year old Town Hall, a beloved 3 storey masonry building highly utilized by a wide variety of community groups, organizations and private patrons. The building and hall space will be restored/renovated to its original glory and updated to meet modern needs. The adjacent Public Library is a small single storey 1950’s building that no longer functions adequately for their needs.

We worked closely with the stakeholders, the steering committee and held public meetings to develop a functional program for the new “Community Hub”. This formed the basis of the conceptual design. The site is a geographic connection point for many of the Towns public and recreational nodes. These were addressed in the planning of the site with a formal plaza entrance from the north and an outdoor amphitheater at the south entrance.

The design approaches the building as 3 components. To the west is the historic Town Hall and to the east is the new Library block which contains large and small public access multipurpose rooms, amenities and gathering spaces including indoor and outdoor terraces. Connecting these two blocks is a spacious glazed atrium which acts as a circulation hub and potential performance space linking the outdoor plazas. The playful ramps, stairs, elevator and bridge links make the entire facility accessible (to meet 2025 standards) while providing exciting views and animation and a variety of gathering spaces. By keeping the Library block separated, the Town Hall is almost entirely visible. The design is environmentally sustainable utilizing natural ventilation, daylight harvesting, rainwater reclamation, a living wall and green roofs.

The conceptual massing model was colour coded to represent existing buildings (white) and new construction broken into coloured blocks as per the various user groups and functions: Library (red) Assembly Hall (green) Community Spaces (blue) Arts Centre Gallery (aqua) Arts Centre School (orange) Tourism + Chamber of Commerce (pink) Facility Support (grey) Circulation (yellow) The Town Hall appears white as it is an existing building but was imagined to host the Assembly Hall on the uppermost level and Arts Centre Gallery functions on the remaining lower levels.

STATUS : Awaiting Approvals