The Heart of the Campus

When Lee Van Orsdel interviewed for the position of dean of Grand Valley State University Libraries, Allendale, MI, in 2005, one of the job's top stated priorities was overseeing the construction of a new main library. Van Orsdel got the job, and, judging from her enthusiastic description of the project to LJ, her passion “to do more” was likely a determining factor.

While there is no confirmed schedule for construction (the project is still in the early planning stages), Van Orsdel's vision, inspired by a visit to the Saltire Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland and by ideas the architecture firm SHW Group presented in March 2008, is clear. (For a summary of that presentation, visit tinyurl.com/VisioningWorkshop.)

The new library, to be called the Mary Idema Pew Library Learning and Information Commons, will “challenge all traditional assumptions about library design,” taking cues from retail, museum, and other nonlibrary environments, Van Orsdel told LJ. It will be flexible enough to serve the needs of the current student body as well as those of future generations of users.

Though Van Orsdel and her staff find inspiration in watching students work, she feels their skills in the areas of presentation, writing, research, and technology can be improved and envisions the new library environment as being specially engineered to help develop those skills further.

Van Orsdel sees the library as part of an “information knowledge market,” the equivalent of an “academic mall.”

To that end, the library will partner with other student service entities, like the writing center and the speech communication department, so that “students can shop for the services they need.” Though there is already a writing center elsewhere on campus, Van Orsdel wants to put a satellite “in the path of the student.”

Other major presences to cohabit the building include the Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence and the Student Summer Scholars Program. The IT department will run the equivalent of an Apple Store Genius Bar, with IT troubleshooters on hand or available by appointment.

Funding is not yet secured for the $70 million project, whose cost includes renovating the current 59,000 square foot library to serve as classroom and office space. But the capital campaign is already under way, with $20 million of a $30 million target for private donations raised to date, and Van Orsdel hopes to secure other funding sources by 2010. (For information on giving opportunities, visit tinyurl.com/GrandValleyCampaign.)

The design team at SHW Group is shooting for Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) status. The campus of 24,000 students has no predominant architectural style, so the library won't be constrained design-wise. The building will be 145,000 square feet and four stories high, “with the ability to see up and through,” Van Orsdel said, as the design principle guiding the project.

The Grand Rapids, MI–based company Steelcase will work with the library to develop prototypes of furniture that optimally supports collaborative learning. Other projected features include an automated retrieval system and, perhaps, a rooftop garden.

Additional staff will be needed in the larger library, but the number won't be determined by the building's size, said Van Orsdel. Efficiencies such as single-service points will be implemented, and wayfinding will be simplified.

How will these decisions and others be made? An existing Library Council, comprised of five division heads and one representative from each of the three personnel levels, will join faculty and student reps to form a new university library planning committee. Focus groups will add valuable insight.

“We want to create a context in which we are a strong partner in serving the university's educational mission,” said Van Orsdel. “We are positioned to become the academic heart.”

The building will have a lot of glass, so that it will light up at night, symbolically serving as a beacon—transparent to users—and as a statement: “This is where the academy lives.”