Renovation and rehabilitation projects are increasingly important levers available to designers as our industry aims to further improve on sustainability. In parallel, attitudes and perspectives on how new and old should interact are constantly developing. In Rotterdam, we wanted to bridge attentively between existing and proposed building elements, rather than contrasting these two ways of being. In the Snøhetta and Kraaijvanger (@kraaijvanger_architects) proposal for the Rotterdam Central Library renewal, we made the story embedded in the old building the protagonist. Then, allowing the updated design to clearly narrate the same story, the new building offers recognition and reverberation, simultaneously adding new and valuable layers to the site and the city.