Main Library DD Presentation

Architect Allen Bacque with MBSB Group presented the current renovation plans for the Main Library to the Library Board and Building Committee at a public meeting on Monday, April 20th. The Library staff, Board, and Building Committee are currently reviewing the plans, suggested colors and carpets, and budget estimate and hope to take action on moving forward within the next few months.

The Main Library facility was opened in January 1973. It has held up well over the years. As part of the renovation, major infrastructure improvements - including a new HVAC system, sprinkling the facility, and bringing other systems up to today's building codes - will occur. In addition, the third floor will be renovated to include public collections - adult non-fiction, reference, genealogy - as well as a computer/technology classroom. The second floor will house the adult popular collections and fiction collection, as well as media (DVDs, CDs, audiobooks). The first floor will house the Children's Department and the Teen Department, as well as a space for people to have a snack while studying or visiting the library. The large meeting room will be relocated to the 2nd floor and smaller meeting and study spaces will be available on all three floors. The Friends of the Library will accept donations and sort for their booksales in dedicated space accessible on the first floor of the library. The Main Library is also the headquarters facility for Administrative and Technical staff as well as equipment that serves the 10 facility library system.

The renovation project will take approximately 24 months, including move out, demolition, renovation, and move in. The current main library will be closed during this process. The Library Administration is currently investigating options for a temporary, small facility to provide library service to the area during the construction, as well as options on keeping much of the book collection available to the public. Several have questioned the availability of collections such as genealogy during this time. We hope to relocate such collections to other Lafayette Public Library locations to keep them available to the public during the renovation. We will let you know once we have the details.

The architect's fly-by rendering of the exterior and interior spaces can be found on YouTube .

The architect's PowerPoint presentation to the Board / Building Committee can be found here

Main Library Design Presentation

Allen Bacque, MBSB Group, will present the design plans for the Main Library renovation project to the Library Board on Monday, April 20, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. The meeting will be in the Main Library 1st Floor meeting room. The public is invited to attend.

Here are the preliminary furniture floor plans. Remember this is early in the design phase. Besides having to get within budget, it is inevitable that things will change. The video fly-by is still linked in the blog post below this one, or directly on youtube. Meanwhile, enjoy what we've done and let us know what you think. Click on each image for a larger view.

First floor thoughts and comments by Library Director - a reorientation of the entrance to face Lafayette, along with a nice extended entrance canopy that identifies us. Stairway relocated adjacent to elevators, which are adjacent to circulation desk. Children's is on the first floor, as is the Teen Space. Children's adds a storytelling room (the pit must be removed for ADA reasons) and a crafts room. Study rooms and a larger group study room are in Children's and Teens. Currently we have NO study rooms in the library. The Friends of the Library will have space for collecting, sorting, and housing, and distributing used books. This is currently in the unfinished part of the 3rd floor. In the remodel, the Friends space has been moved to the first floor - where the garage currently is located. We hope to reclaim the garage space and allow the Friends to be more efficient in their volunteer efforts as they support the Library. Oh, and did I mention we hope to have the drive up book return and pick up window that we are putting at our new Regional Libraries. It was a challenge in the Main Library Renovation, but the Architects have come up with a solution.

 

Second floor thoughts and comments by Library Director - adult fiction, periodicals, biographies, large print, languages, and new books are on this floor, along with an information/help desk. The adult AV collections are on this floor. Currently we have DVDs, Videos, and CDs. The space and shelving will be flexible enough to accommodate whatever media (or downloadable media) are 'in' libraries in the future. You will notice that, in addition to the study rooms added on this floor, we've moved the meeting rooms up here. We are hoping to afford to remove the column that sits in the middle of our current meeting room - giving us a smaller, but much more usable space. Most of our meetings are for smaller groups (10-50) and the trade off of a smaller "large" meeting room - gaining a small meeting room, conference room, and many study rooms is advantageous. The Library Foundation, another one of our great support groups, will have office space on this floor.

 

Third floor thoughts and comments by Library Director - finally, after over 30 years, we are planning to open the 3rd floor as a public area. We plan to move Adult Non-fiction, a quiet reading and study room, Genealogy space, and local history to this floor. The area will have an information/help desk, numerous study rooms and a classroom sized-space for distance learning. Of course there will be public computers, online catalog access, and wireless Internet access on all floors. Administrative offices and IT moves to the third floor.