Library Buildings 2009: The Constant Library

We've discussed the financial crisis before (“Keeping the 'Eco' in Economy,” LJ 12/08, p. 36), as well as the move toward sustainability (“Going, Going, Green,” LJ 12/07, p. 44). Lots of environmental features are included in this year's 170 public library and 40 academic library building projects, completed between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009, and illustrated here in stunning photographs.

Despite the economic vagaries, the larger focus remains the constancy of the library as a place for learning and entertainment, for bringing individuals—readers, students, researchers, gamers, dreamers—together in a space created just for them, the heart of a community, a campus, a landscape.

Public projects, as always, take up the bulk of our pages and data. This year's expenditures totaled more than $1.1 billion. Rather than homing in (or harping) on the numbers, we're going to let the libraries “speak” for themselves. (To afford more room to display these visions, we've relegated the full statistical panorama and the six-year summary to the online version.)

The new Tanimura and Antle Family Memorial Library, California State University, Monterey Bay, addresses “the challenges of building in a fragile world while creating a beautiful and functional learning environment.” At the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY, the architects were given the responsibility of “provid[ing] new structures that equal the high standards established by its historic buildings.”

The Hyman Forum at Goucher College Athenaeum, MD, is a performance space “whose character changes from day to day—and sometimes hour to hour.” The renovated space at Duke University's Perkins Library, NC, the 24,000 square foot learning center called The Link, “dazzles everyone who walks in....”

The main branch of the Yuma County Library District, AZ, has so much natural illumination that some staff “have yet to turn the lights on” in their offices. The Kendale Lakes Branch, Miami, FL, has a 24'-high corridor that “connects the pedestrian-friendly main entrance to a county-run park.” The Pinecrest Branch Library, FL, is on the site of the former Parrot Jungle tourist attraction, combining “modern architecture with old-world charm.”

The German Township Branch of St. Joseph County Public Library, IN, “emulates a whimsical cottage in the woods,” while the Oldham County Public Library, KY, “was designed to replicate a park lodge.” The Finksburg Branch Library, MD, is shaped “to fit into the undulating edge of the wetlands.” The Saddlebrook Joint-Use Facility, Omaha, “embodies the philosophy of lifelong learning and fitness.”

The Arkansas Studies Institute, Little Rock, melds an 1882 and a 1914 building with “a new 21st-century structure [to] function as one entity.” The original librarian of the Guilford Free Library, CT (built 1933), still volunteers in its refurbished Historical Room; she's 101 years old. An interactive learning center at Waukegan Public Library, IL, “reinforces the parent as the child's first 'teacher.'” The McPherson Public Library, KS, has eight stained-glass windows. The Leland Township Public Library, MI, worked with existing space to “totally reinvent itself.” What could be more timely than the unveiling of the new Kansas City Public Library, MO, business and career center. The Flesh Public Library, Piqua, OH, moved to a renovated 1891 hotel that “hosted presidential speeches...a civil rights sit-in...and the end of Prohibition in Piqua.”

Whether new or reconditioned, historic Carnegie or more contemporary, shooting for LEED certification or not, this year's library projects have one thing in common: establishing themselves as the flagship, hub, oasis, crossroads, anchor, intersection, civic presence, fabric, destination, living room, and “important campus place” to the constituents of their communities and institutions while meeting the needs and sensibilities of 21st-century library service.

With financial concerns eating away at the libraries, it's heartening to know that when it comes to our facilities, with a nod to Mr. Sondheim, “Good times and bum times, [we]'ve seen them all and, my dear, [we're] still here.”