For the Waterdown Library and Civic Centre, RDHA applied the studio’s practice of customizing off-the-shelf components to create an extraordinary building from ordinary materials. This objective, coupled with the building’s location — on the Niagara Escarpment, a rocky ridge overlooking Lake Ontario — established the impetus for the building’s design. The multi-use facility, which includes a library as well as a heritage society archive, police and municipal community service outlets, and a seniors’ recreation centre, unites various demographics in a single building.