How to make your new Library fit

One of the topics I've tackled over the past few months in an online class is Adaptive Reuse.  Last week I was touring a site for a new project and thought it might be a good time to cover this for all of you.  Deciding if an empty building will work for your new space is often an exercise in open discussion and deep evaluation.  But knowing what to look for is your best defense when making a choice that will effect the existence and growth of your Library for years to come.

Several years ago I was working on a Library project and we were trying to decide if we should renovate the existing space or if we should just purchase a new building outright and start from scratch.  The main reason for a renovation and not a new build was prime location of the Library and how it related to the local community.

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The current location was right in the center of the town and had been there for decades.  Not to mention it was central to the city so there really wasn't any other vacant lot to build on.  A new building on a fresh new lot would have relocated the Library entirely and would have made it much more difficult for people to walk there on a daily basis as they often do.  So naturally it made the most sense to renovate an existing building to meet the growing needs of this particular Library.

At the time, the contractors wanted to look at a local bank that had recently gone on the market and it happened to be very near the existing Library so we all made the trek over to see if it could function as our new location.  

Aside from the fact that this building looked very much like a bank on the outside, it also had three floors in a relatively narrow column going straight up with a centralized elevator.  We had to consider several issues.

1. Security - with a central elevator shaft protruding into the space, could someone on staff have adequate visual access to all portions of each floor
2. Future costs - realizing we would need more staff to outfit each floor and possibly double the staff on each floor since visibility was now cut short, could they even afford the cost of hiring all that new staff
3. Basic function - since the overall space was pretty vertical and narrow at that, could we actually fit the necessary space planning into this building without causing more flow issues

The answer became a very quick and resounding NO.  The pros were difficult to ignore.  Location was supreme and the additional parking, which was a huge hindrance for the existing location, was a dream come true.  But at the end of the day, the building just would not function properly for our Library.  We would have to rethink our existing space and how best to maximize the walls they already owned.

So now we get into how to reuse your existing space in a way that will meet your current needs but also address your future growth.  

With this specific building we could not add square footage outside of the property line.  Meaning we could not expand outwardly, but we COULD expand inwardly.  Fortunately this specific building was built by a local architect in the 60s which was a time of frequent architectural experimentation.  So this building had some unique overhangs that we were able to take advantage of.

We ended up extending the upper level over the parking lot while creating a covered parking garage beneath for staff.  This increased our square footage by enough to grow our back-of-house areas and meeting rooms to those new spaces.  That of course gave us more room to space plan properly for the upper floor.

For the ground level, we were able to extend the existing storefront windows all the way to meet the multi-feet overhang that now created a flush face for the building while adding greatly-needed front-of-house square footage for the youth areas.  

Virtually we had to make do with what we had and in the end it worked out.  Now the issue was parking.  We didn't really lose any, but we absolutely were not going to gain any.  But since this location is centrally-located to the town square, many people walk this area anyway and it wasn't going to be much of change that anyone had to adapt to.

The gem of the story was that there had been talks with the city to build a parking deck near the square for the growing population for quite some time.  And as luck would have it, they planted that building right beside the existing Library!  So they got their increased parking  after all and it all worked out.

The overall message here is that when you're looking at moving your space to a new building, you absolutely MUST talk through all the pros and cons with not just your internal team but also with your architect and interior designer, contractors and sometimes even your engineers.  This is why it is critical to have a strong and trustworthy team on board from the very beginning if at all possible.

Ask questions.  Take notes.  And really think through where you want to be 10 or even 20 years from now.  Will the new building work for you and if it won't is it possible to think outside the box with your existing space to make better use of it?