Architect/ Designer: Bisset Adams
Client/Developer: City of York Council
Builder: William Birch
The York Archive Hub is an adaptation of the very handsome Central Library Building (dating from 1927) – involving the adaptation of the building to the specialist storing and consultation of the city archives – some of which go back to the 13th C. The reading rooms and other areas for consulting the archives occupy some of the original library spaces. The archives themselves are houses in a brand new highly serviced building providing the very steady temperature and humidity required to preserve the documents. The design of this new part of the building is complicated by the fact that the considerably weight of the archive store is built over an existing single-storey wing of the original building. The main structure is of steel but the self-supporting skin is of cross-laminated timber, which combines high insulation, strength and stability using a natural renewable material. The new building is almost entirely invisible to public view and has no windows – but is nevertheless very elegantly detailed with a skin of pre-patinated copper carefully arranged to engage with, and complement, the stone and brick construction of the earlier building.
