The new Pickering Public Library is a focal point for a new urban community located on lands made available by demolishing the southeast section of the Pickering Town Centre shopping mall. The redevelopment masterplan, created by the architects on behalf of the City of Pickering and the mall owners, weaves housing, retail tenancies, and iconic civic buildings into an active public realm organized around a new Public Square. The Library, a new performing arts space, and seniors and youth centre cluster around the perimeter of the Square and form the living heart of the new community that will be the keystone of Pickering’s Downtown Redevelopment Plan.

Highly active public zones such as the learning centre and children's area are located on the ground floor. Quiet activity zones are located on the upper levels including the multi-purpose room and a seniors' zone on the second floor, and reading and study areas on the third floor. The fourth floor consists of an indoor-outdoor garden, with sliding doors that open onto an roof terrace with planters, benches and moveable furniture. A children’s garden and fire pit with seating are located at the northeast corner of the terrace cantilevered over the public square to provide views. The fire pit can be used for indigenous ‘smudging’ ceremonies. A meditation room is tucked into the fourth floor, clad in translucent glass to provide privacy while also allowing those outside to see whether the room is occupied.

Fully glazed façades on the east, south and north, and a cantilevered third floor create a compelling sculptural form that anchors the Library as a significant public building on the Square. Support programming and vertical circulation is organized along a masonry wall that abuts the mall, thereby maximizing flexible and accessible program space within. An atrium carved from the core of the building mass holds a dramatic feature staircase serving as the principal vertical circulation route and visually connecting all levels. Between the ground and second floors, the stair features amphitheatre seating for community events; at the fourth floor the stair connects to a roof terrace. A centrally-located bank of elevators adjacent to the atrium connects all levels from the underground parking to the roof terrace.

Today, the library remains a focal point of community life, much as it did at the turn of the 20th century. It continues to be an egalitarian, welcoming and safe gathering place for citizens from infancy to old age.