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Can your library afford new branches or even operate existing facilities? Many libraries still struggle to meet increasing demand with flat or falling budgets and outmoded facilities.
The trend toward putting public libraries in retail spaces such as big-box stores, malls, strip centers, and main street buildings shows no sign of slowing. The McAllen Public Library, TX, main library, which opened in late 2011 in a former Wal-Mart, garnered many awards, including the coveted American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Award for Interior Architecture. McAllen residents got a lot of library compared with what they would have gotten building new, reduced their impact on the environment, and turned a blight into a flourishing center of community life.
On October 19 the Fayetteville, AR, Public Library (FPL), LJ’s 2005 Library of the Year, rolled out the red carpet for 500 ticket holders as part of a Hollywood style premiere of its first film, Up Among the Hills: The Story of Fayetteville.
After a successful launch of the inaugural New Landmark Libraries (NLL) in 2011 focusing on public libraries, LJ is proud to present its second list of iconic NLL buildings. This time the spotlight is on academic libraries. Our five NLLs, plus two honorable mentions, will inspire and inform any building project.
Our number one NLL facility, Goucher Athenaeum, crosses service boundaries, mixes library metaphors, and harmonizes a campus already known for its modernist aesthetic.
The 55,000 square foot addition to the UC-Berkeley Law Library appears like an open and transparent one-story pavilion from the street, but it has a huge impact on the law library as well as the law school.
From claustrophobic and dark, the library took on a light and airy presence. Historic and almost forgotten spaces that had been chopped and covered up were restored, including a 30'-tall ceiling in the 1913 “grand reference hall” that became symbolic of the entire effort.
Materials and finishes engender a sense of lightness and fun. Playful, inventive, and, sometimes, surprising, the designs turned straightforward materials, like copper, wood, glass, steel, aluminum, and acrylic, into anything but ordinary. Digitally printed skylight liners, laser-cut guardrails, and water jet–cut aluminum panels provide endless interest.
When Seattle University leadership took on its largest single capital project—expanding the campus library to encompass a learning commons and create a campus hub—it created a landmark knowledge resource for the future that engages and inspires students today.