Library Buildings around the World

(Johnston)
South Park Library, Seattle, WA – USA 2007
The South Park neighborhood in Seattle is a rich and diverse place. It has a strong Latin American influence but is also home to
Pacific Islanders, Vietnamese, and dozens of other ethnic groups. The library is a meeting place and focal point for this
underappreciated part of the city and in that spirit the design includes a courtyard or “front porch” for South Park. The red stucco
is a lively reference to the area’s Latin American flavor, as is the outer and inner courtyard in the design. LEED Equivalent.
(Jonston)
Bozeman Library, Bozeman, MT – USA 2006
Bozeman Library anchors one end of a vibrant Montana town. It acts as a cultural magnet for Galatin county and a primary year
round destination for patrons. The site borders on Main street to the north, Pete’s Hill to the south, downtown to the west and
Lindley Park to the east. The citizens of the region have developed an impressive private and public funding program to make this
great new facility a reality. Soaring windows, incredible views of the Bridger Mountains from the Montana Room and an expansive
physical and electronic library will bring exceptional information services to the region. The Bozeman Library has also been
awarded LEED Silver certification. Green features include: natural daylighting, a photovoltaic electrical generation system
water harvesting and reuse, water-efficient plumbing, the use of low-VOC and recycled materials, the recycling of construction
debris. (Johnston)
Capitol Hill Library, Portland, OR – USA 2003
The project consists of a new library on the site of an existing library at the corner of Harvard and E. Republican St. The site is the
border between commercial and multi-family zones of Capitol Hill. In collaboration with James Cutler, the library is designed to be
environmentally sensitive. The building is wrapped by a “vertical garden” which extends inside the building as well as out. The
library also extends the living environment found in the residential neighborhood to the west towards the commercial district to the
east through its two story central reading room, lined and surrounded by plant material and books, which will be a refuge of calm
and quiet for those visiting from the commercial area. The exterior expression of the building is urban, the library will have an
urban edge as well as a living skin. LEED Equivalent. (Johnston)
Richmond Beach Library, Shoreline (King County Library), WA – USA 2001
The 5,250 SF Richmond Beach Library located within Richmond Beach Park, is designed to provide community level services
including a collection of 45,000 volumes, electronic catalog, internet access, lounge and a meeting room. The library is prominent
from the surrounding park and this is reflected in its design. Aesthetically, the building has been designed to “fit” the image of a
building in the park. Arbors, trellises and berms surround the building to help it make it an integral and positive aspect of the park
landscape. (Johnston)
Kallmann McKinnell & Wood Architects, Boston, MA – USA
http://www.kmwarch.com
Libraries:
University of California San Diego, Graduate School of Management, La Jolla, CA – USA master plan
135.000 sqf.
John M.Olin Library, Expansion and Renovation, Washington University, St. Louis, MI – USA 2004
184.000 / 16.000 sqf.
Awards:
2004 AIA St. Louis Chapter Design?Award
Located at the heart of the Hilltop Campus, KMW’s sixth building project for Washington University was the expansion and
renovation of the existing central university library. The program called for a perimeter expansion at grade; the complete
replanning and renovation of all of non-stack areas; and the redesign of the entire exterior to enhance the existing character of this
vintage 1962 facility and bring more natural light to the redefined reading areas. The reworking of the exterior entailed the
replacement of the solid masonry walls on the east and west sides of the top floor with a sun-screened curtain wall and an expansion
of the number of windows on the floor below.
A new 7,000-sf Internet café now occupies the southeast corner of the building, where an existing outdoor courtyard was
transformed into a three–story atrium, providing a fresh spatial focus for both the library and the café. As part of the complete
reconfiguration of the ground floor, the entrance was moved from the east to the south side of the building, improving the controlled
access through a common entry vestibule and consolidating the various user services – circulation, reserve, reference, inter-library
loan – into a single shared-services and checkout desk. In order to increase the visibility of the most important holdings, the reading
and work areas of Special Collections, which houses rare and archival materials, were relocated to the ground floor.
The dramatic transparency of the ground floor creates views to and from the rest of campus: an assertion of the connection between
the cloistered study of the library and the rest of college life.
In association with Paradigm Architecture. (Kallmann)
Howard University Law Library, Washington, DC – USA 2001
In association with Baker Cooper & Associates
77.000 sqf., $ 20.007.000
Awards:
1st Award Design. The Masonry Institute, Inc. 2001
The new library for Howard University Law School is a state-of-the-art facility supporting legal research and instruction. This fourstory,
76,000 square foot building provides for a book collection of up to 215,000 volumes; seating for over 295 students, including 90
open carrels, with all locations wired for computer use; enlarged micro-form and audio-visual facilities; and distinctive rooms of
wood and brick for special collections, newspaper and periodical reading, and the Rare Book Collection. The library is organized
around the second floor triple-height Reading Room, which addresses the new courtyard and the existing Holy Cross Hall to the
south. The tall windows of this 4,000 square foot space give views onto the landscaped courtyard and celebrate the display of readers
and books to the campus. Table and lounge seating for 80 students are provided in this great room, as well as the 2,000 volume
reference collection. The book collection and individual study carrels are distributed equally on Floors 2, 3 and 4, which open
directly to the Reading Room. (Kallmann)
The new library for Howard University School of Law provides for a book collection of up to 215,000 volumes; seating for 295
students, including 90 open carrels, with all locations wired for computer use; microform and audiovisual facilities; and distinctive
rooms of wood and brick for special collections, newspaper and periodical reading, and the Rare Collection. The four-story library is
organized around the second-floor, triple-height Reading Room. The tall windows of this 4,000-square-foot space give views of the
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