One of New Canaan’s best-loved and most heavily used institutions is earning global recognition for its excellence.
New Canaan Library last week was named a top-3 finalist for “Best New Public Library in the World” by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions or ‘IFLA.’
In introducing New Canaan Library CEO Ellen Sullivan Crovatto and Centerbrook Architects Principal Jim Childress—who presented via videoconference during the 89th IFLA World Library and Information Congress, held Aug. 18 in Astana, Kazakhstan—IFLA public library standing committee and jury member Raneetha Rajaratnam said, “Originally built in 1913, the library has been completely redesigned into a beautiful and welcoming library for the entire community in New Canaan.”
She continued: “The jury was particularly impressed by how the programming of the library gives us all a feeling of a nice, light and welcoming public living room, where the local citizens can meet up for various activities. Everything is designed with a human scale and with a sense of connectedness to the surrounding exterior spaces of the library. This is especially true with the inviting views into the building for the streetscape and different gardens and plazas alongside the library.”
The winner was Gabrielle-Roy Library in Quebec, Canada and the third nominee was Heping Library in Shanghai, China.
Sullivan Crovatto said during an interview at the library Wednesday that New Canaan Library is one of only three U.S. libraries to be named a finalist in the past seven years.
“It’s an international recognition and it’s an enormous honor,” Sullivan Crovatto said. “So just the nomination alone is already a tremendous win and a tremendous honor. We were up against some incredible competition with enormous examples of beautiful municipal architecture. Heping was open 24 hours a day—I thought for sure that was going to weigh heavily with the judges because that’s just an incredible feat of service. Delivery to the community. We were very privileged to have had the opportunity to present live in Kazakhstan at five o’clock in the morning last week.”
Sullivan Crovatto added that the library is “deeply grateful” to Centerbrook fro translating the organization’s vision “into a beautiful and functional reality, and for bringing the true spirit of our community into physical form.”
“We are deeply honored and delighted to be globally recognized for elevating the intersection of library services and architecture,” she said. “It’s inspiring to witness all the great work happening around the world.”
New Canaan Library Director Cheryl Capitani said in a press release: “We are immensely proud of how our dedicated staff has brought this remarkable building to life by providing exceptional service to the community every day.”
Past recipients of the Public Library of the Year Award include: 2024: Beijing Library, China; 2023: Biblioteca Gabriel García Márquez, Spain; 2022: Missoula Public Library, USA; 2021: Deichman Bjørvika, Norway; 2019: Oodi Helsinki Central Library, Finland.
Congratulations to New Canaan Library. What an extraordinary level of recognition. Well done!
Warmest good wishes,
Lisa
What an impressive honor for the New Canaan Library—and so well deserved. I knew it’d be an amazing place, but every time I visit, it still somehow exceeds my expectations.
Every visitor that I’ve taken to the library, whether from NYC, LA, or Paris, has commented on how beautiful and how comfortable and how wonderful our library here in New Canaan is. Congratulations to everyone who helped in the planning and who continues to make the library such an open, welcoming space.
What an incredibly well deserved honor. I love our library!
Technically, it was a flawed honor because the library was mostly demolished and there was no reuse. Here’s an excerpt from the IFLA article.
https://www.ifla.org/news/winner-announced-for-the-ifla-baker-taylor-public-library-of-the-year-award-2025/
Jury chair, Jakob Lærkes states:
This year’s three nominated libraries; Heping Library from China, New Canaan Library from the United States and Gabrielle-Roy Library from Canada are all part of a strong trend within library design, where we see more and more examples of architects and planners choosing to take on a more sustainable approach to library architecture by remodeling an existing building as their starting point instead of tearing down and built anew. They are all true role models of how transformation and the reuse of building materials can challenge our idea of what is a new library. Gabrielle-Roy Library’s strong community-centered approach has resulted in a library, that seems to fit its community perfectly.