new building. The design by Safdie and DA Architects was by far the most radical design and yet was the public favourite. 70% of the public liked the Safdie scheme as a "unique, imaginative, exciting, interesting building." The inclusion of the 21 story office tower in the design was required in order to pay for it and as part of a deal with the federal government to obtain the land; the federal government has a long term lease on the high rise office tower portion of the project. Construction began in early 1993 and was completed in 1995. In the year following the new library's opening, library visitors increased by 800,000. In addition to its function as the central branch of the city's public library system, the one square block project includes an attached office high-rise, retail shops, restaurants, and underground public parking. The Library building has a rooftop garden designed by Vancouver landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander. The roof garden is accessible by the public. The new 8,000-sq-ft rooftop garden and the expansion to Level 9 were built at a cost of $15.5 million; they opened to the public in September 2018. The expansion is LEED Gold CIv1 certified, managed by Light House Sustainable Building Centre. Statistics Library building (including retail and parking) 9 stories 37,000 square metres (398,000 square feet) the 1.3 million books, periodicals, and other reference materials are moved through the building by vertical and horizontal conveyors 51 km of cable are laid throughout the building, including a fibre optic backbone seating capacity: 1200+ 700+ parking stalls and a few bicycle racks top two floors were leased by the Government of British Columbia until 2015 and are now part of the library. They include meeting space, study space, roof garden and exhibition space. approximate cost: CAD $107 million Image gallery See also List of Carnegie libraries in Canada References External links Vancouver Public Library Postmodern architecture in Canada Public libraries in British Columbia Buildings and structures in Vancouver Culture of Vancouver Tourist attractions in Vancouver Education in Vancouver Libraries established in 1869 1869 establishments in Canada