LJ's New Landmark Library | Appaloosa Branch Library
Scottsdale Public Library l Arizona | Architect: DWL Architects and Planners Inc. May 15, 2011 |
| Desert Dream With a 275' suspended wall, the Appaloosa Branch Library seems to float in its desert setting. No mirage, this library is well grounded in energy-efficient and ecoconscious design that makes the most of its social spaces and its transparency. Photos by Bill Timmerman |
7 | A Shimmer of Green in the Desert
Rising up to take in the mountain views, the Appaloosa Branch Library embodies its “desert mirage” theme. Exterior walls are covered in iridescent mica that shifts color throughout the day and helps repel the desert heat. The dynamic structure—perched at one end in a mound, surrounded by drainage arroyos, and anchored by a seemingly suspended 275'-long wall and steel-clad segments—appears to float in its landscape.
But the Appaloosa Branch is no mirage. It delivers a very real 31 percent energy savings off conventionally built facilities and generates a huge amount of pride in staff and area residents.
The right kind of transparency
The library’s position within a curve in a road allows drivers to spot activity as they pass—this transparency is an important visual signature of many New Landmark Libraries.
Customers can pick up or return items through a drive-up window, park energy-efficient vehiclesin special spaces, enter restrooms without touching doors, and see real-time energy use as they walk through the entry corridor. They’ll find librarians walking around looking for customers to help or at information stations. If the library gets too noisy, patrons seeking silence can hole up in the quiet study room.
This library is designed around social spaces. In the “newsroom” adults can chat, read newspapers and magazines, and watch TV. A club space for teens includes its own meeting room. Interactive children’s displays encourage even crawling infants to learn, hands on.
Beautiful and sustainable
The new building reclaimed a dirt parking lot used by tourists visiting this cowboy town, offering instead a watering hole of sorts for locals and visitors alike.
Careful siting, 20° off the north-south alignment, maximizes the ability to deal with the sun. A small, expandable solar photovoltaic system helps lower energy costs, as does daylighting that keeps electric lights mostly off during the day. The skin of the building helps keep it cool because it is separated from the rain screen by an inch to form airspace. Heat in this space causes the air to rise through a vent so energy is carried away by convection.
Ecominded staff and customers will appreciate that 60 percent of the countertops are made of recycled paper and 94 percent of the cabinetry is recycled sorghum. They might also appreciate that the contractors were so effective at recycling construction waste that there was no garbage removal for the first six months of construction. Another environment saver is the library’s parking lot surface: permeable decomposed granite pavers that minimize water runoff.
It’s no wonder that Appaloosa won the Western Mountain Region AIA Honor Award and the Most Sustainable Building of 2010 honor from Real Estate Development magazine. Its vision of libraries and ecoconscious construction will likely inform many libraries to come.
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Vitals OPENED 2009 New construction Branch Library SIZE 21,242 square feet COST $6.47 million LEED-NC Gold certification POP SERVED 72,000 |
For more on trends in library design see "The Year in Architecture 2010."
