Laval’s Multicultural Library gets a new location
A municipal building on Samson Blvd. that the City of Laval had designated nearly forty years ago as the Alain Grandbois branch of the library system will be returned to its original purpose when the Multicultural Library moves in.
Located at 4300 Samson Blvd. in Chomedey, the Centre Alain-Grandbois (as it is now known) was built by the city in 1983 as the Bibliothèque Alain-Grandbois.
Good move, says Dib
It ceased being a library building in 1996, five years after the opening of the Multicultural Library. The Centre Alain-Grandbois currently houses the Société d’histoire et de généalogie de l’île Jésus et le Centre d’archives de Laval.
“This is excellent news for the residents of the district of Chomedey, where the Alain Grandbois Library will be at the centre of life and more accessible from now on,” said Laval city councillor Aline Dib, who is responsible for cultural dossiers.
“Each year, the Multicultural Library welcomes more than 250,000 visitors,” she added. “By moving its activities to Samson Blvd., we are greatly improving access for residents of the sector.”
A seamless move
According to the city, the Alain Grandbois building is large (1,145 sq. metres) and will help facilitate a seamless transition and transfer of essential services from building to building.
A building enlargement is planned, to bring the surface area up to 2,600 sq. metres, thus offering a place better adapted to the needs of families, including play and gathering spaces, reading and work areas, presentation rooms and digital areas.
The city says that measures are being taken to find new quarters for the Société d’histoire et de généalogie de l’île Jésus and the Centre d’archives de Laval that are better suited to their needs.
Six new branches
According to the city, the reopening of the Alain Grandbois Library was foreseen on a smaller scale in a master plan for the city’s public library system.
The building enlargement work is expected to provide the same amount of area to the public as the former Multicultural Library building on Chomedey Blvd. did.
When fully implemented, the master plan for the library system will build six new library branches in neighbourhoods in Laval, for an eventual total of 16 library branches, including a new branch in northern Chomedey which the city says has been set as a priority.
