Flower Power

Imagine a 24,000 square foot space anchored by a rotunda and embraced by undulating glass walls. “Doesn't it remind you of a flower?” Meg Klinkow Hartmann, director of the Oak Brook Public Library, IL, asked the group as participants pondered the overhead view of her library. In fact, yes, a voluptuous daisy.

But the reality of service inside the flower is not so pretty: since the building lacks interior walls, sound zings through the public area, creating what architect Rick McCarthy of Burnidge Cassell Associates, located in Elgin, IL, called “odd acoustic issues” and exacerbating the need for a distinct and ideally separate space where youthful library users could be loud.

Any expansion would face some constraints. The library needs more storage space and has to cope with an unseemly mechanical unit tacked to one edge of a petal that would impede expansion to the south. And the library is surrounded by carefully sculpted and beloved gardens that are currently being reenvisioned with a new landscape plan. Hartmann didn't want to see that work squandered in the face of a potential addition.

From there on, a decidedly arboreal attitude informed the discussion. How do you adapt a space that resembles a flower? “There is a tyranny in symmetry,” noted McCarthy, as the group discussed whether it would be better to make a new, independent space or expand the existing footprint by extruding one side. They first considered a plan from the architects that made the flower oblong by pushing out one side for an addition.

Further brainstorming produced several important green notes: the architects said that the storm runoff of the larger footprint could be mitigated by paving the parking lot with a “pervious” substance that allows water to be absorbed through the surface instead of turning into runoff. Also, they suggested that the glass over the rotunda—currently clear glass that means a hot, brilliant light part of the day—be replaced with glazed glass to help stabilize the temperature and improve the daylighting.

But the nut of the design problem had not yet been cracked. “No matter what you do, you disturb the symmetry of the flower,” noted one prescient participant, “so I'd put a stem on it and dig down for more storage.” And, indeed, something quite like that was the second plan Burnidge Cassell shared with participants. That more elaborate option called for a new bulbous unit attached to the existing building by a short hallway that would allow for independent use of the space, producing a sense of privacy and exclusivity for the teens. It would involve a separate HVAC system—potentially geothermal, Hartmann later suggested. Built as a separate entity, the entire addition would have less impact on the existing structure than pushing out an existing wall of the library.

Oak Brook's Janice Skowron, then a trustee and now the library commission chair, likened the sequestered space to a learning pavilion mentioned earlier in the day, noting “that was a very interesting idea.” Other participants were also enthusiastic, including Hartmann. “This is a community center, since there is no downtown,” she said, referring to Oak Brook's suburban nature.

It's what is called an “Edge City” outside of Chicago, a suburban village that also hosts corporate offices and a mall, which provides much of the funding for the library. The library itself borders a soccer field that is part of the village infrastructure. “Having a second building is attractive to me as it means we appeal to various audiences,” Hartmann added.

Another surprise benefit of the “stem” solution: the semicircles created by the connection between the two buildings wouldform protected, three-sided outdoor spaces, which, Burnidge Cassell's Chris Killinger noted, people prefer over more exposed arrangements. A vertical garden was also suggested to improve further the view of the parking lot. All of this pleased Hartmann, who could be heard repeating, “Good.”

She carried that energy home, where impact is already being seen. The session, Hartmann reports, “brought the issue of green design to the attention of our library commission,” and the library “used the ideas to help plan our next garden addition.” The library expansion, itself, however, has yet to be clarified, but with the village beginning strategic planning this year, she adds, it “should be addressed, at least in a general way at that point.”