<P> Designed by Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones , and inspired by the British Museum Reading Room , the building is formed as a chapter house , separated from the main body of the Centre Block by a corridor ; this arrangement , as well as many other details of the design , was reached with the input of the then parliamentary librarian , Alpheus Todd . The walls , supported by a ring of 16 flying buttresses , are load bearing , double - wythe masonry , consisting of a hydraulic lime rubble fill core between an interior layer of dressed stone and rustic Nepean sandstone on the exterior . Around the windows and along other edges is dressed stone trim , along with a multitude of stone carvings , including floral patterns and friezes , keeping with the Victorian High Gothic style of the rest of the parliamentary complex . The roof , set in three tiers topped by a cupola , used to be a timber frame structure covered with slate tiles , but has been rebuilt with steel framing and deck covered with copper . The initial overall combination of colours -- grey Gloucester limestone and grey Nepean , red Potsdam and buff Ohio sandstones , as well as purple and green slate banding -- conformed to the picturesque style known as structural polychromy . </P>
<P> Designed by Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones , and inspired by the British Museum Reading Room , the building is formed as a chapter house , separated from the main body of the Centre Block by a corridor ; this arrangement , as well as many other details of the design , was reached with the input of the then parliamentary librarian , Alpheus Todd . The walls , supported by a ring of 16 flying buttresses , are load bearing , double - wythe masonry , consisting of a hydraulic lime rubble fill core between an interior layer of dressed stone and rustic Nepean sandstone on the exterior . Around the windows and along other edges is dressed stone trim , along with a multitude of stone carvings , including floral patterns and friezes , keeping with the Victorian High Gothic style of the rest of the parliamentary complex . The roof , set in three tiers topped by a cupola , used to be a timber frame structure covered with slate tiles , but has been rebuilt with steel framing and deck covered with copper . The initial overall combination of colours -- grey Gloucester limestone and grey Nepean , red Potsdam and buff Ohio sandstones , as well as purple and green slate banding -- conformed to the picturesque style known as structural polychromy . </P>
what influenced the exterior design of the library of parliament
what influenced the exterior design of the library of parliament
Victorian High Gothic style
Victorian High Gothic style