Design Challenges
-- Library Journal, 09/15/2009
Lewes Public Library, DE
ARCHITECT R. Drayton Fair, Lerner | Ladds + Bartels
THE CHALLENGE The Lewes Public Library has inhabited several structures throughout its long history, including a wing in city hall and an area within a museum dedicated to maritime history. In 1988, it moved into its current 13,000 square feet along the town's main drag, where it is flanked by railroad tracks. The community has become a haven for retirees, who've swelled its population from 12,000 to 20,000 in just a few years, and recently the library received state funding to grow to 24,000–26,000 square feet. While the current building is spacious enough to include a meeting room accommodating up to 200, the entryway is tight and the staff areas crowded. Another problem is that two wings added in 2000—one for kids (noisy), another for research (quiet)—feature large windows. A big mistake, said Director Chrys Dudbridge, as the rooms are hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Worse, the windows leak.
THE BRAINSTORM Architect R. Drayton Fair (pictured) of Lerner | Ladds + Bartels began by discussing how the building currently functions as a library and how it fits into the community, asserting it is a prime candidate for solar energy, which would harness the sunlight flooding through the windows and use it to the library's advantage. He advised incorporating storm water management by creating a water wall, which, besides having cosmetic appeal, would buffer the noise coming from the children's area and siphon off roof water. It would also “cool and dehumidify in the summer and humidify during the winter,” he said. To meet the needs of the growing community, the meeting room space could be repurposed, with a new meeting room included in the library expansion, preferably one with a green roof. The entrance problem, Dudbridge felt, could be solved by connecting the parking area with the street in another location and building a new entrance.
Jackson District Library, MI
ARCHITECTS Charles W. Wray Jr., BCWH & Jeff Hoover, Tappé Associates
THE CHALLENGE The Jackson District Library's Main is a 103-year-old, 1900 square foot Carnegie situated in what Director Ishwar Laxminarayan calls “the most economically backward city in the United States.” Nearby stands the library's 80-year-old administration building, whose lack of elevators renders its second floor largely unusable. The last addition to the library was a silo constructed in 1981 for extra space. More than a quarter century later, the facility again finds itself uncomfortably cramped in inadequate, decaying quarters, with a meager budget to boot. Laxminarayan's dream: to connect the administration building to the Main, to add a teen space, café, and bookstore, and to bring a 21st-century feel to the nearly 19th-century construction, with sustainability and preservation at its core.
THE BRAINSTORM While acknowledging that the Carnegie is “a lovely cultural artifact,” BCWHs' Charles W. Wray Jr. (pictured, l.) and Tappé Associates' Jeff Hoover (r.) first debated whether, given the library's age and condition, building anew would be smartest. Considering the depressed financial picture, however, they quickly agreed that morphing the existing buildings was the only realistic scenario. One option entailed leveraging the administration building's roof, decreasing the heat island (perhaps by shading the parking lot with trees), managing storm water, and maximizing daylight to cut utility costs. Another tack was to remove the silo and add a new structure to connect to the administration building at the basement level and second floor as well as include a walkable green roof. Installing a tech center open to the public after hours, the group concurred, would increase the library's status in the community. Other improvements discussed: installing high-performance lights, insulating the roof, and maximizing space by constructing flexible rooms (via movable walls), with furniture that could be reconfigured according to any given space and need.
Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library, University of Virginia
ARCHITECT Peter Gisolfi and Frank Craine, Peter Gisolfi Associates (PGA)
THE CHALLENGE The University of Virginia's 38-year-old Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library, located in the newly renovated Arts Precinct and consisting of two floors and a mezzanine, is in dire need of an overhaul. Both its print collections and user services have outgrown their current 18,000 square foot space, and the library needs to further scanning and digital services as well as accommodate additional reading and study spaces. Also, emergency shelving housing the print collection blocks the copious natural daylight (pictured), and the shift to digital has meant an increase in production noise.
THE BRAINSTORM PGA's Peter Gisolfi (pictured) and Frank Craine proposed four possible reconfigurations, with the group ultimately favoring a space-creating C-shaped stacking solution and a perforated scheme in which holes cut through the waffle slab of the building would create views from both above and below. Gisolfi advised “making everything soft” to control noise levels and adding glass partitions to generate productivity across the floors (“the more you see, the more it energizes you”), also proposing a translucent, nonglare top for the building. “A green roof is really just about insulation,” he said, “while solar collectors will actually generate energy.” Other ideas to which library director Lucie Stylianopoulos was receptive: working with the adjoining café to attract users and installing colorful partitions throughout the building on which art could be displayed, so as to give users the experience of, as Gisolfi put it, “living in a collage.” The discussion left Stylianopoulos feeling inspired. “We are poised for this,” she said.
Keyser-Mineral County Library, WV
ARCHITECT Denelle Wrightson and Marlene Shade, PSA-Dewberry
THE CHALLENGE Keyser–Mineral County Library's current 3000 square foot location is, according to Director Connie Sutton, “woefully inadequate” in meeting the needs of the 5000 downtown residents it serves. The board has decided on a new 75,000 square foot site—away from the downtown area but in the vicinity of schools and a nursing home—and Sutton has been charged with overseeing the creation of a new library building, with the goal of making it a community center and incorporating green design features at affordable cost.
THE BRAINSTORM PSA-Dewberry's Denelle Wrightson (pictured) and Marlene Shade reviewed three site plans with the group, each differently oriented—affecting in which direction the library would expand were it to expand in the future. “Orientation,” Wrightson said, “is 90 percent of getting you going down the right road.” Sutton loved the architects' idea of incorporating a porch into the design for the purposes of exhancing usable footage and framing views. In response to Sutton's desire for “a closed-off community room,” Wrightson suggested that maybe a reading garden would make better sense than a porch, as it would have a more enclosed feel. The group additionally explored opportunities for cross-ventilation, natural lighting, and the acquisition of LEED points through the use of local lumber.
Shepherdstown Public Library, WV
ARCHITECT Peter Bolek, Holzheimer Bolek + Meehan
THE CHALLENGE The new and expanded 16,000 square foot library in Shepherdstown, WV, will be on a 4.5-acre brownfield about a mile from the current tiny facility in town, with the advantage of being about the same walkable distance to the middle school as the old library. But it has one big caveat: two acres of the site are a former refuse dump, so the area must first be properly cleaned and cleared for construction. The good news is the cleanup is being paid for with government grants, not with library funds. The brownfield has already been evaluated by the Environmental Protection Agency, and the groundwater wells have been placed in anticipation of a more current assessment.
THE BRAINSTORM Holzheimer Bolek + Meehan principal architect Peter Bolek (pictured) and his colleagues David Holzheimer, Dan Meehan, and James Shook presented several concepts to the group, assessing the sun path and prevailing winds before settling on a south-facing building to allow for the optimal amount of natural light. Instead of surface parking, they suggested “tuck-under” parking, with half the spots beneath the building and a shaded deck above. Other green features library director Hali Taylor and the group favored, whatever the design, included solar panels, a green “living” roof to keep heat gain down, and clerestory windows. Once the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection completes its reassessment of the brownfield, the library's next order of business, Taylor told LJ at press time, will be to begin working with the Northern West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center to identify sources for actual cleanup of the site.
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