Similar to Evelyn Gregory branch, Victoria Village Library fit right into its neighbourhood setting, taking its place among the generous number of trees along Sloane Avenue in North York. With pale green walls and leafy views from its high windows, Victoria Village’s interior was like a cheerful and well-stocked treehouse.
Although built on a modest rise, there was a sense of elevation when I looked out the big glass door in the west wall. From there, I could see high rise apartments in the distance and trees in the foreground near the library’s parking lot.
When I turned towards the north wall, I noticed that the ceiling was lower over the Kids and Teen’s Section, creating a long and narrow space illuminated by more than a dozen high rectangular windows side by side. These windows served up a vision of mystical sky slices filled with leaves in summer and dark branch etchings in winter. Below the windows, ESL materials as well as offerings in French, Chinese, and Hindi appeared on the shelves.
In the Teen Zone, two homemade robot friends supervised a busy study table from on top of a bookshelf. Both robots wore pie tins on their heads and had protruding egg-carton eyes taped to their aluminum faces. Large disposable baking tins provided their torsos, and their arms were foil-covered paper towel rolls with hands made from fuzzy silver pipe cleaners. (On my 2013 visit, I saw that the robots had been retired from service).
Victoria Village also contained a large program room on the basement level. There, a forgotten scarf became a frame through which to appreciate the community area.
I was reluctant to leave this restful branch, so I walked slowly around the north side of the building after exiting. There I discovered the tree responsible for filling the interior window panes so beautifully. With the setting sun pausing on its branches, the parking lot could momentarily be mistaken for a backyard. And that’s the beauty of a library whose welcoming light shines brightly from summer to winter and every season in between.
