LJ's New Landmark Libraries | 10 More That Will Inspire
These New Landmark Library Honorable Mentions range from 7500 to 74,000 square feet and offer plenty of ideas for your next library project May 15, 2011
Anacostia Library
District of Columbia Public Library | Washington, DC
2010 | Architect: The Freelon Group Architects
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A vibrant, futuristic beacon among brick duplexes, the Anacostia branch replaces the old library but with a whole new attitude. An open floor plan, with few full walls, ensures flexibility and easy visual control of public space. One of a series of new DC branches, this library is green inside and out. It features solar hot water, raised floors,
a rain garden, and a bioretention area to minimize runoff. Most of all, though, it brings a revitalizing, transparent, and forward-leaning vision to the neighborhood.
Eastern Avenue Branch Library
Davenport Public Library | Iowa | 2010
Architect: Engberg Anderson
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Davenport’s Eastern Avenue Branch, anticipating at least Silver certification, is the only LEED public library in the area—and takes that status seriously. Carefully sited to maximize sunlight, the stone and glass building also has special parking for low-emission vehicles and connectivity to neighborhoods through new bike and walking trails and city bus service. A 140-well geothermal HVAC system keeps energy costs down. Kiosks and educational walls share the sustainability message.
Kilton Public Library
West Lebanon, New Hampshire
2010 | Architect: Tappé Associates
A candidate for LEED Gold, the Kilton Public Library is also poised to be an economic driver given its Main Street location on an abandoned used car lot and its flexible, stunning interiors that blend New England sensibility and warmth with a clean, modern ethic. The radiant floor slab is sure to please story hour patrons while a front door/back door approach highlights the best of small-town living. This library, paid for with private donations, also sports a biomass boiler that takes advantage of a waste product such as wood pellets to generate heat.
Library! at Cole & Ustick
Boise, Idaho | 2009 | Architect: Fletcher Farr Ayotte, Inc.
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Boise’s Library! at Cole & Ustick is a revitalizing force in a downtrodden retail center, now named “Library Plaza.” The LEED Gold building, with 50 percent of its space devoted to youth, is a testament to the power of libraries to transform lives and businesses—and not just because it uses old blue jeans as insulation. It has transformed its location into an oasis in more than once sense—including a natural one, with landscaping that turned a parking lot into a terrain with fine views from inside and out.
Maple Grove Library
Hennepin County Library | Maple Grove, Minnesota
2010 | Architect: Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd.
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The long winter must feel a lot shorter in the dynamic and surprising spaces in this branch built for one of the fastest growing Minnesota communities—with over one million checkouts in 2009. Hennepin County’s Maple Grove branch packs in a 350-space parking ramp, a green roof with plantings, a gravel pit–based geothermal heating and cooling system, the flexibility of raised flooring for shifting service needs, mobile display units and interactive panels for children, and a hip computer bar for teens. More wow comes from invigorating colors against stark white walls softened by warm wood tones from rift-cut oak furnishings and millwork that echo the region’s early pioneer spirit.
Mission Bay Branch Library
San Francisco Public Library | California
2006 | Architect: Santos Prescott and Associates
San Francisco’s first new branch in 40 years, Mission Bay Branch Library is an exemplar for how mixed-use facilities can be an integral part of the urban redevelopment efforts that are revitalizing America’s cities. The branch shares the building with affordable senior housing, retail establishments, an adult day health center, and a joint community space. More affordable to operate and readily accessible to residents, this library holds its own in the larger building but capitalizes on the synergies from such features as the shared 30kw photovoltaic solar system on the roof. Custom window displays for books draw in passers-by, as does dynamic public art enabled by the city’s two percent for art program.
Plainsboro Public Library
New Jersey | 2010
Architect: BKSK Architects
Plainsboro Public Library benefited from the New Urbanism thinking of community leaders who used the library to anchor its new “Town Green” and add new functions such as classrooms, a health education center, an arts resource center, and the first children’s science lab to be located in a U.S. public library. A number of interior design choices—hand-woven seating by a Thai artisan, fabrics by a Dutch industrial designer, and a text-based graphics element created from the first lines of an international group of famous novels, submitted by library patrons—reflect the ethnically diverse community.
Richmond/Senator Milton Marks Branch Library
San Francisco Public Library | California
2009 | Architect: San Francisco Department of Public Works Bureau of Architecture
A major renovation and expansion to San Francisco’s Richmond/Senator Milton Marks Branch Library protects the historic integrity of this Carnegie library originally built in 1914, while bringing it decidedly up-to-date. Contemporary glass enclosures add a cool 4000 square feet of usable space. Other fresh features are induction lamps that have a 100,000-hour life span, operable windows, raised flooring, jargon-free signage, the conveniences of a modern library such as a teen area and study rooms, and seismic protection—all of which celebrate the classic design.
Westhampton Free Library
Westhampton Beach, New York
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2010 | Architect: Ward Associates, PC
Westhampton Free Library built a decidedly green building on the pedestrian-friendly site of the former library—proving with its 71 photovoltaic panels that harvest 16 kilowatts of solar power that an ecobuilding can look as historic as its setting. This LEED Gold library blends in with its quaint coastal location yet offers RFID, flexible interior spaces, raised access floors, an outdoor reading garden, large windows to enhance daylighting, and more, along with its huge energy savings and carbon reduction. Plus, since opening, it has implemented a green cleaning program and only buys Green Seal consumables.
White Tank Branch Library and Nature Center
Maricopa County Library District | Waddell, Arizona
2010 | Architect: DWL Architects and Planners, Inc.
Certified LEED Platinum, the White Tank Branch of Maricopa County Library District is located smack dab in a regional park, a beautiful locale, though at two miles from the nearest neighbor, it requires vehicular, or horseback, transport to get there. The vast interior, with one central service point, connects to the desert, with continuous views of the desert landscape through walls of windows that block the hottest light of the sun. The building generates 30 percent of its power from solar energy and houses the park’s Nature Center, further multiplying its value to visitors.
For more on trends in library design see "The Year in Architecture 2010."
