“We’re Open!”
A steep time line inspires creativity and teamwork in the Alvar design
By Amy Nash -- Library Journal, 9/15/2006
Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd. (MS&R), got deeply involved in the Alvar renovation the day Jeffrey Scherer, the firm’s lead architect, sent out a companywide email asking for volunteers from his staff to help reopen a little Katrina-flooded library in New Orleans. His action was inspired by conversations with LJ’s Francine Fialkoff, who had proposed solving this one small part of the New Orleans problem swiftly, in time for the summer American Library Association (ALA) meeting, just over four months from the day the email went out. Eleven people jumped at the chance to volunteer their time, and the MS&R team went on to log some 615 pro bono hours to get the job done.
 | A REVIVAL IN EVERY SENSE A far cry from the dreary outdated Alvar Street Branch that preceeded it, the new library jumps into the 21st century, not only with its design and refurbished exterior but also with an all-new collection. The branch has been updated and built for the locale: the recycled rubber floor tiles can be mopped dry in case of flooding. The RFID system, from Integrated Technology Group and TAGSYS, is NOPL’s first. Snap-Text’s fabric wall panels between the high windows function as soundproofing and home to local artists’ work. Out front, the book drop from Kingsley replaces the weatherbeaten old one. |
On June 25, Alvar Street was hopping as people streamed past the “We’re Open” banner and through doors swung wide to welcome neighborhood residents, conferencegoers, and city officials to celebrate the new beginning. Inside the 2550 square foot Alvar Street Branch Library they found sleek new computers next to shelves packed with new materials, a children’s nook nestled in one corner, a self-checkout station and RFID gates, as well as design details that anchor the building in its history—a jazzy color palette, shelving end panels decorated with photographs of local jazz musicians, and the refinished original wood shelving that runs around the perimeter of the space. The $800,000 project was complete.
This was a far cry from what MS&R saw when it first approached the Alvar project. When New Orleans’s levees broke under Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge, 80 percent of the city’s area was inundated, and eight of the 12 public library branches were ruined. The projected loss of local tax revenues forced the layoff of over 90 percent of the library system’s employees. Total damage to the New Orleans Public Library (NOPL) System is estimated at over $26 million. The Alvar Street Branch suffered wall-to-wall flood damage, with standing water remaining in the building for weeks after the hurricane. The branch lost its entire collection, as well as all interior furnishings and technology equipment.
| ||||||
On March 3, 2006, several carloads of people from LJ, MS&R, NOPL, and the city caravaned around the city, visiting flood-devastated libraries. Also on hand were key individuals like local architect Eean McNaughton, who brought along New Orleans contractor Keith Boudreaux of Citadel Builders and Ron Biava, NOPL Foundation consultant, who organized the daylong tour and who would have the challenging job of matching vendor contributions with hard cash donations.
When they came to the Alvar Street Branch, they saw a large, drab room, scented with mildew and mold, bare of all the waterlogged furniture and books. Freestanding metal shelving hinted at the past collection, and a watermark some two feet off the floor recorded just how deep the water had gotten. Grime covered everything. Where the old carpeting had been ripped up, the original floor tiles lay cracked and exposed, and the power at the floor was dead. In that emptiness, they saw a patchwork of small renovations past.
“If the building were a person, it would have been sitting patiently in an emergency room—happy to let others who were more seriously injured see the doctor first,” says Scherer of his first impression of the space. Faced with what was basically just the shell of the building, MS&R got to work.
A new vision for Alvar
That shell was enough. Beyond the branch’s structural integrity, the Bywater neighborhood where Alvar was located, known for its history and demographic diversity, was on the way to recovery. “Alvar was on the edge of the flood,” NOPL board chair Tania Tetlow points out. “It will serve functioning areas on higher ground but will also be there for the neighborhoods coming back, particularly the Ninth Ward.” When she announced the renovation plans to local neighborhood groups, she received standing ovations. In addition to Bywater, Alvar will serve the Faubourg Marigny, Faubourg St. Roch, Holy Cross, and the rest of the Ninth Ward communities. The NOPL is also making the branch available to the coastal St. Bernard Parish while its libraries are rebuilt.
|
MS&R looked past the watermark, the outdated decor, and the steep time line to envision a bright, colorful, one-room library filled with fresh materials and with ample room for people to gather. It would celebrate the community’s cultural heritage and offer essential services to help the citizens of New Orleans get back on their feet.
History of a building
Design and construction of a restoration of this type would typically take at least ten months. For MS&R, designing a space that would be durable, easily maintained, functional, and beautiful on such a tight schedule required swift reaction and ingenuity. It meant immediately obtaining documents of the building illustrating the original construction and 1982 renovation (see the Timeline, below). With LJ’s help MS&R also needed to pull together the key players and vendor donors to meet the overall project schedule without jeopardizing design.
Originally opening in November 1940, the Alvar Street Branch Library was designed by city architect Maurice B. Depass and financed with a Works Progress Administration allocation of $20,523. By the mid-1970s, circulation had fallen off as the building began to show its age. The neighborhood, however, pushed for a large-scale renovation, which was completed in 1982. In 2005, new patron registration was up 24 percent over 2004. Students from Frederick Douglass High School, located across the street and scheduled to reopen September 7, used the library. Singer Charmaine Neville (of the well-known Neville family of musicians) lived nearby and came to the library to read to children.
Built at a time when library design was shifting from neoclassical to modern, the structure featured an original design that straddled the preelectronic era of the 19th century and the world of modern communications in the mid-20th century. “The original building design is, metaphorically, a bridge,” says MS&R’s Scherer. “Like that original design bridge, the new design, some 60 years later, works to bridge the mid-20th-century world with the emergent 21st century.”
A 21st-century library
An upgraded heating, ventilation, and air circulation (HVAC) system, new lighting, a new drop ceiling, and wiring for technology are just a few of the changes that bring the library into the 21st century. Some additions serve dual purposes. For instance, fabric wall panels for sound absorption are also designed to display screen-printed artwork done by local artists. “Our hope is that the library will itself reflect the neighborhood through the art,” explains MS&R project manager/architect Paul Mellblom, himself a Tulane graduate.
Currently, the renovated library accommodates 18 computers (donated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), 16 of which are public access stations and two workstations for staff. There is also one self-check station. This will more than quadruple the community’s ability to gain access to government information related to social security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Department of Labor since many of the area’s residents have no other access to the Internet.
MS&R interior designer Leanne Larson took on the responsibility of selecting materials and then calling and securing contributions from vendors willing to donate furniture and equipment. Working closely with NOPL, she adjusted the design several times in order to accommodate the shifts in the mix of materials and furniture being given. Even in the final hours, Larson revised the furniture layout to account for more shelving for donated CDs and DVDs. In the end, over $150,000 worth of furniture and finishes were donated.
Beating the deadline
Recognizing the urgency, NOPL, Bywater Neighborhood Association, and NOPL Foundation gave rapid input on changes to the design to keep the project on track. Scherer describes NOPL as a “trusting client who made the entire process smooth and efficient.”
When it came time to get city permission and building permits, the window was tight: only two weeks for approval or the schedule would be off. NOPL’s Bill Johnson personally delivered the drawings to the city and expedited the normal review process. Because the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the renovation also had to comply with the U.St. Interior Secretary’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.
| ||||||
General contractor Citadel Builders faced a huge hurdle assembling a team of subcontractors and suppliers in such a short time frame. Major regional shortages in construction materials and labor added to the challenge. “Many previous suppliers of building materials and services had gone out of business after Katrina. Those remaining were operating with severely reduced or new staff,” Johnson explains. “These difficulties were compounded by competition for materials and services from the many rebuilding projects in the city.” Moreover, says Johnson, there were complications owing to “the poor state of everything from telecommunications to roads and electrical systems.”
Despite these shortages, construction was completed on the fast-track schedule, possible only because, as Boudreax, project manager for Citadel, says, there was “full cooperation of the subcontractors, NOPL, MS&R designers Mellblom and Larson, E. Eean McNaughton Architects, and all of the other people involved.”
Meeting the deadline also required the timely manufacture, processing, and delivery of donated furniture, computers, and the library collection. More than 400 publishers donated materials to the library, including CDs and DVDs. (See “Three-Month Miracle,” p. 16 for more on the opening-day collection.)
Another hurdle was raising the money for the project. Half of the nearly $800,000 in project costs came from donated in-kind services, materials, furniture, equipment, books, and other items from the library vendors and publishers. The NOPL Foundation had to raise the rest in a very short period, a daunting task especially for an organization embarking on its very first capital campaign. By June 25, the foundation had raised $373,000 in funds from local and national donors. (As of late August, the foundation had raised $2.1 million in cash and in-kind gifts.)
A library reborn
“Libraries in New Orleans have always been central to community activity. The reopening of the Alvar Street Branch Library will play an important role as a symbol of the rebuilding and rebirth of the surrounding community,” says Johnson. As if to prove that observation, on July 5, the day the library officially reopened, a group signed up to use the computers for a writing project compiling personal stories from the storm for publication in a local newspaper.
“I had people from the neighborhoods come up to me at the preview celebration and tell me how glad they were that we were opening and how much they were looking forward to using the branch,” says NOPL’s Geraldine Harris, now acting director. “I’ve also received inquiries from artists who want to use the branch to show their work. Overall, I think the branch will be heavily used by the community.”
That community itself was, according to MS&R’s Scherer, critical to the renovation process. “For the project to transcend, to rise to a high level, the triad of owner/builder/architect has to expand to include those whose voices are often silent,” says Scherer. “In the case of the Alvar Street Branch project, these voices were of the Ninth Ward residents. They spoke of a need for a safe place for renewal and healing, for a community living/learning room.”
Mellblom says that he will consider the library renovation a success if it becomes the center of the Bywater community. It appears to be well on its way to reaching that goal.
For MS&R, the process of reviving Alvar was not only a feat of craft, it was also deeply emotional. “At 2500 square feet, this is not a very large library,” says Mellblom. “But it is one of the most important libraries MS&R has worked on.” Scherer agrees. “Libraries are the perfect gathering places where communities can come together to interact for the greater good.”
|
