There’s Brutalism and just plain brutal. The University of Toronto’s Robarts Library is both.

Fort Book, as it’s known, opened in 1973 — not so long ago, but an eon ago culturally. Back then, the library was a kind of fortress, a place intended for the academic elite (undergrads not included), a cloistered building designed to keep the world at bay.

The Brutalists, an especially fervent sub-sect of Modernism, were caught up in a heroic vision of concrete and its sculptural possibilities. Theirs was an architecture of bigness, of vast planar surfaces and large proportions.

Not surprisingly, Brutalism has been hated ever since. It is one of the reasons people have disliked “modern architecture” forever. Its scale, combined with the dreary materiality of aging concrete, make it hard to feel all warm and cozy. Of course, that was never the idea. The term actually comes from brut, which means raw in French; but it has always sounded — and looked — more brutish than anything.

So it’s not hard to understand why a contemporary architect might want to run screaming from a project that involved refurbishing a building as recalcitrant as Robarts Library, one of the five largest university libraries in North America. Not so Gary McCluskie, a principal at Toronto’s Diamond and Schmitt Architects. He has spent the last four years figuring out ways to humanize the unwelcoming interiors of this period piece and soften its sharper edges.

“Big empty spaces mean nothing to students now,” McCluskie says. “The question was how to engage them the moment they enter the library. The building was incredibly well built and has lasted really well. We were struck by the quality of the construction. The doors were finished in brass and the couches upholstered in leather. We were hired to create a livelier environment, something brighter and more open.”

Though the $42-million remake has a long way to go, it’s clear that McCluskie has his work cut out for him. In addition to reimaging the existing facility, his task was also to create an addition to occupy the west part of the site facing Huron St. This building is set well back from the surrounding streets, which means plenty of room for expansion.

Designed by Warner, Burns, Toan and Lunde (WBTL) of New York with Mathers and Haldenby of Toronto, the original 14-storey structure was conceived as a giant triangle with a couple of boxes attached. For reasons that some suppose had something to do with the layout of the stacks, this three-sided arrangement was chosen despite its inherent awkwardness. WBTL, which less than a decade earlier had been hired to a design space station for NASA, was also recognized for its libraries in campuses across the U.S. Despite its reputation, the firm’s contribution to the U of T was not one of its better efforts.

The lack of contextual awareness borders on indifference and, let’s be honest, the building looks more like a factory than a library. The late Ron Thom, the architect who designed Massey College and Trent University, wrote that the Robarts “represents everything in architecture that’s arrogant and wrong.” As he pointed out, it has no connection to the city, let alone the campus. Separated from the sidewalk and towering over its neighbours, Robarts makes no effort to belong.

“The spaces are tired and out of date,” McCluskie explains. “There are some very interesting moments, but the underlying challenge of the building is how confusing it is for users to orient themselves. We’re trying to introduce more light and improve the character of study space. Being able to see light at the end of the circulation corridors, for example, is a fundamental improvement to orientation. You can now see from one apex to the other. It is a dark building so this extra light improves the mood.

“When students enter the building at the ground and second floor levels, they didn’t see the function of the library. Instead, there were these large, impressive but empty spaces. We’ve added study spaces to the second level.

“We continue many of these themes in the addition. It is clad in glass and has a more open character. You can enjoy the light and enjoy the view. It’s such a wonderful context. Light is the primary element we’re trying to work with.”

This addition, which will sit on top of the loading dock, has yet to take shape. But preliminary drawings show a study in contrasts; the heavy opacity of the concrete walls set off by the delicate transparency of the addition.

“We’re at the end of the schematic design phase,” McCluskie says, “and we’ll be working on design development in the New Year. The university is still raising money. We’re aiming to be finished in about two years.”

Until then, Robarts will remain what it has been from the start — a closed book waiting to be opened.