Library Buildings around the World

The new Plainsboro Public Library building anchors a newly created Town Green. It shapes, and is shaped by, this pedestrianfriendly
public space, created as part of a new mixed-use Town Center for an ethnically diverse and rapidly growing community.
Working in concert, the public space and the public library are an affirmation of the civic realm. Plainsboro’s first library was
inaugurated in 1993, and the Library (as a de facto community center) has played a key role in the town’s self definition as it grew.
The new 45,000 square foot/$12.4 million facility celebrates that fact, as a home for their increasingly ambitious program of services.
In addition to its sizable collection of books and periodicals, their expanded program includes an internet café, a children’s science
museum, classrooms, an arts resource center and a community meeting space/auditorium. The architecture literally showcases these
community resources. Simple, geometric brick wings bracket an articulated glass & steel center entrance and main reading room.
This material contrast emphasizes the Reading Room’s openness and transparency, and a lacy colonnade engages the plaza and
square as a front lawn/outdoor reading room. Once inside, another outdoor room is revealed–a directly accessible contemplative
library Reading Garden. Progressing up to the third floor Children’s Floor, two corresponding outdoor terraces–one active and one
passive–echo the overall connection between indoor and outdoor functions. The Children’s Floor also includes a tower element, from
which a commissioned video artwork, projected onto the outwardly sloping ceiling will be a quietly intriguing landmark visible from
afar. All of these asymmetrically arranged exterior architectural elements, evocative but not imitative of the area’s traditional brick
and white trim buildings, combine to express the contemporary mission of this 21st century library. Plainsboro’s town center is a
new creation, based on a time-honored model. The residential and commercial structures that complete it, along with the street
furniture and lighting, strike a comfortably nostalgic note. The Library offers a bridge to the present, and has quickly become a
source of civic pride and an emblem of community aspirations. The interior architecture is expressive, as well, of the library as a
vital part of contemporary life. The double-height, expansive main Reading Room, as described above, is conceived as an indoor
equivalent of the Town Green and opens directly to it. Key program elements (Gallery, Café, Community Room) are visually
accessible from the entrance, and carefully zoned from more active and public to less active and quiet. A broad open stair leads to
the circulation desks of each floor that introduces a language of modern craft and artful simplicity. Throughout, the millwork and
furniture evince a welcoming spirit of quiet whimsy and an embrace of multi-cultural influences. (BKSK)
New York Law School, New York, N.Y. – USA 2009
Primary Client: VVA Project Managers, Building Owner: New York Law School
BKSK partnered with Washington, D.C.-based SmithGroup to complete the first of a two-phased project that comprises 200,000 sf
of new construction and 150,000 sf of renovations that results in a highly functional complex and an attractive new physical identity
for New York Law School right in the urban heart of New York City. Our design approach emphasized the principles of clarity and
visibility. The new wing contains classrooms, offices for faculty, student spaces, and the law library, organized by a generous
lounge/circulation space that runs along a 5-level, 200-foot glass façade. This transparent envelope displays a high degree of activity
well into the evening, transforming the impression of the School “inside-out.”The Phase I new addition with five stories above- and
four levels below-grade opened in September 2009. Phase II includes renovations that will create innovative facilities for faculty and
students, supporting the School’s new centers for advanced scholarship and research. (BKSK)
Marlon Blackwell architect, Fayetteville, Arkansas – USA
http://www.marlonblackwell.com
Libraries:
Gentry Public Library, Fayetteville, AR – USA 2008
Awards:
2009
Renovations Magazine Design Awards Grand Award
Metropolitian Home 100 Best Designs (#27)
National AIA/ALA Library Design Award
Gulf States Regional AIA Design Honor Award
2008
Arkansas State AIA Award
Gentry Public Library
Fayetteville, Arkansas (2008)
A new modern public library and community room are surgically placed in the 100 year-old brick shell of a former hardware store
on Main Street in a small Arkansas town. The existing brick structure, though of little architectural value, was desired by the
community to remain visually intact at the exterior. The scarred and patched building is thus conceived as an historical artifact; its
ruined state transformed by the addition of steel and glass volumes that encase existing window openings and brick ornament, infill
existing openings, and selected walls.
These transparent volumes act as display cases oriented from the interior towards the city, presenting the building and its artifacts
to the public, extending the gritty expressive character of the library with another layer of time and modernity, in effect, a new civic
presence for the town of Gentry. (Bleckwell)
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – USA
http://ww.bcj.com
Libraries:
Ballard Library and Neighborhood Service Center, Seattle Public Library, Seattle, WA – USA
2005
Awards:
2009 Green Good Design – The European Center for Architecture and The Chicago Athenaeum
2009 Beyond Green Award – Sustainable Buildings Industry Council
2008 Special Award – Wood Design Awards
2008 Award for Excellence in Place Design. Environment Designb Research Association and Metropolis
Magazine
2007 Design Award. AIA/ALA Library Design Awards
2007 Merit Award for Design. AIA Northwest and Pacific Region
2006 Top Ten Green Projects. AIA, Committee on the Environment
2006 National Honor Award for Design. AIA
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