San Francisco's Green Branches

Three hours, three libraries, a million ideas. That's what the lightning-quick but information-packed tour of three San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) green projects yielded for the 20-some lucky Design Institute participants who made it to town a day early and got aboard the tour bus. Led by SFPL's chief of branches Brian Bannon and Bureau of Architecture designer Paul De Freitas, with SFPL's senior project manager Emily Wong along to mine for extra context, the tour rumbled up and down the city's signature hills to the Mission Bay Branch, the Noe Valley Branch, and the Western Addition Branch.

Each space presented unique green features. The very modern Mission Bay Branch was green from the outset, by being in a mixed-use building with senior housing and a health center upstairs. The basics: the more happening in a single building, the more green it is, and Mission Bay is in use, all right, with people coming and going, hunkered down to read, or browsing the smart face-out displays.

Among the other green highlights of the $4 million, 7500 square foot library are a floor made of recycled tires and cork, a children's area deep in the space that's literally aglow with daylight via a light well, high walls of glazed windows that open for natural ventilation, and solar roof panels. (Note: a small footprint might not bring LEED points, but it's inherently sustainable because it means the use of fewer resources.)

Mission Bay is also on one of the city's greenbelts and close to public transport. All of this green is signaled by a very healthy tree living inside the lofted reading area up front.

With a glance back at a prominent sign thanking San Francisco's voters for their support of the library, we were off to what Bannon called “a completely different kind of branch” in Noe Valley, a Carnegie renovated for $5.7 million in 2008. The balancing act of applying green thinking to a historic building was simplified by the existence in the library of excellent daylighting owing to tall windows, now managed well with roller shades. “You want daylighting,” said De Freitas, “but you don't want glare. You shouldn't have to wear sunglasses inside.”

A good portion of the renovation focused on seismic retrofitting to brace the walls laterally; the steel beautifully hides beneath the gorgeous plasterwork. A number of other green features caught our eye. All the shelving was repurposed, not replaced (note: reusing furniture gets few LEED points but has a positive impact on the environment). Natural linoleum flooring feels right for the era in which the library was built and lasts. Also, parking gives way to public transport. (“As those...familiar with San Francisco know,” pointed out Bannon, “we are a transit-first city.”) Instead, SFPL works with the city to paint the curbs to allow people who have to drive to stand long enough to get something done but not park—all of which gets LEED points, too.

A hidden gem at Noe Valley is right outside the side door in the children's room, which leads to an enclosed patio, with decking made of what De Freitas calls “sawdust and soda bottles”—a sturdy, woodesque-looking material composed of a plastic and wood composite called Trex. This mini–green space leads around the back to a promising tiered area that will become a community garden and make the most of every square inch of this now even smarter building.

Straggling to take in each detail meant the group took a bit of time to reboard the bus before its last, very not-least stop, the Western Addition Branch Library. This 1966 modern structure, restored this year for $4.3 million, has a number of green aspects. Notably, most of the existing shell was preserved in the restoration (note: the greenest building is an existing building). This 8000 square foot hot spot houses the largest Japanese-language collection in the state, a multinational reality represented with excellent signage in three languages. It also now hosts intelligent green design choices such as a raised linoleum floor with panels that lift for easy rerouting of wiring (and more), workable windows to facilitate airflow, and the very popular flat-panel radiant heaters that stand only inches off the wall.

Radiant floor heating, De Freitas noted, is not ideal for libraries because it can limit the future reconfiguration of shelving. Instead, he said, designers are looking more at ceiling heating for other projects. Further up, the roof features a cool-roof coating, which turns that surface “green,” too. Outside, a roomy garden's lovely landscaping is also drought-tolerant.

On the drive back to the main library, questions kept flying. How did the SFPL incorporate education to earn LEED points? “Actually,” Bannon answered, this tour “is one of them!” What would SFPL have done differently? Daylight harvesting remains a missed opportunity, Bannon reflected, noting that it could have been useful in Mission Bay especially. We need to “ramp up that learning curve” when it comes to making sure bids go to informed architects, he said.

Much to absorb, and much already learned, we settled back for the remainder of the ride pondering the libraries' many green features and their differences. This three-hour tour demonstrated just how on target Pfeiffer Partners' architect Stephanie Kingsnorth was when she said later at the Design Institute, “What does green look like? There's an answer for every building. They're not the same.”