Client: Leon County Board of Commissioners

Project: 12,000 sf branch library

Cost: $2.5 million

Status: Conceptual Design - Scheme C

Delivery: Bid

Description: Libraries are often rendered in historic styles to evoke a sense of connection with the past. Classical architecture has been the language of choice from the Greek-revival Carnegie libraries of last century to the Beaux-Arts Harold Washington library of this decade. Their iconography: columns, pediments, heavy cornices and heavy rusticated bases, connote sacred ground - Temples of Reason chronicling the species progress.

In the tradition of this practice, we chose a period when the library begins to make it’s transformation from a repository of truth and wisdom into a dynamic place of exploration and discovery – a machine for learning. Where histories shrouded in heavy stone give way to glass and steel shepherds. Where Dewey decimal lessons learned segue into vinyl grooves and magnetic charges of the imagination.

Our historic form is sleek, pure and invigorated by a modern palette. It’s a sound form, linear, logical, portending order and a rational approach towards discovery, yet floating between a brow and a cantilevered shelf. The new library is weightless, potentially mass-less, a semi-transparent abstraction framed by slivers of light. A box evocative of the first supercomputer, vibrating between the tension of opposites. This is no ordinary library.  Nor is its form derivative. But rather a hybrid between yesterday and tomorrow. Where concrete meets wisteria floribunda and Matrix-like strings of alpha-numeric characters drip across vertical surfaces.

Construction: From the intersection of two thermally dense masonry (trombe) walls springs cantilevered concrete floor and roof which form an armature for the volume to be hung. The semi-transparent walls are dense and insulated to R-30 as is the roof and floor plate making for a very efficient and well insulated enclosure. Comparatively thin slivers of daylight wrap around the box both top and bottom allowing for generous natural lighting by day and a dramatic expression of the form by night.

The palette is standardized and affordable– hollow-core slabs, masonry modules, panalized walls. Yet this kit-of-parts is assembled and articulated different than the rest.  On top of the 8" hollow core slabs is 8” of dirt and a green roof. Roof plantings are wild flowers, drought resistant bunch grasses and flowering shrubs. The serpentine glazing on the north elevation is tinted to reflect the lake and divides the conditioned space from a reading patio and outdoor function area. Community space could be broken out in a separate stand alone space of similar complexion. Design is driven by Florida Green Building Coalition guidelines and with the exception of the child v. adult sized portals at the entry is devoid of metaphor.