What was once an abandoned T.J. Maxx store in a shopping center is now a vibrant, inviting public library. The Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library (CHPL) has transformed the ghost store into the new Deer Park Library, designed by GBBN.
The formerly drab exterior now has a striking blue color and aluminum tubes on the facade, making the library clearly visible from the street. Large new windows in the facade and roof bring daylight into the once-dark retail store, while curved interior walls break up the space.
Five times larger than its previous space, the new 25,000-sf Deer Park Library has been organized around a central zone called The Marketplace. This open, flexible area has been designed to encourage mingling, lounging, and discovery. From the Marketplace, visitors can view all the library’s offerings, including computer workstations and study pods.
GBBN used the store’s large floor plate to create distinct zones for different age groups and activities. The zones have been denoted with mobile furniture and acoustically private yet transparent study pods, and include quiet spaces, a community meeting room, and space for messy creativity. The flexible space can be reconfigured and allows different activities to happen at the same time.
The kid zone invites children to spend time there with bright pops of color and a mix of soft and hard furniture. Custom-designed acoustic ceiling baffles both provide visual interest and dampen sound.
“The community let us know we needed a modern, expanded library, a place to connect, create, and collaborate, and we are truly pleased with how this renovation and expansion turned out,” Diane Cunningham Redden, CHPL board of trustees president, said in a statement.
One sign of the project’s success: The library had to invest in an additional computer terminal to handle the volume of checkouts.
On the Building Team:
Client: Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library
Architecture and design: GBBN
Civil engineer: Bayer Becker
Structural engineer: Schaefer
MEP engineer: Motz Engineering
Technology: BCL Enterprise
Contractor: Perkins/Carmack
Related Stories
| Dec 28, 2014
AIA course: Enhancing interior comfort while improving overall building efficacy
Providing more comfortable conditions to building occupants has become a top priority in today’s interior designs. This course is worth 1.0 AIA LU/HSW.
| Nov 10, 2014
Herzog & De Meuron unveils plan for National Library of Israel
The library’s new home will be a completely new building in Jerusalem, and will combine the functions of a central research center, a venue for indoor and outdoor cultural and educational activities, and a place for digital experience.
| Oct 16, 2014
Report: How to keep public libraries relevant in a digital age
Public libraries will avoid being relegated to the scrap heap of history in a digital age as long as they continue to serve as platforms for learning, creativity, and innovation that strengthen their communities, according to a new Aspen Institute report.
| Oct 16, 2014
Perkins+Will white paper examines alternatives to flame retardant building materials
The white paper includes a list of 193 flame retardants, including 29 discovered in building and household products, 50 found in the indoor environment, and 33 in human blood, milk, and tissues.
| Oct 15, 2014
Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities
The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.”
| Oct 12, 2014
AIA 2030 commitment: Five years on, are we any closer to net-zero?
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the American Institute of Architects’ effort to have architecture firms voluntarily pledge net-zero energy design for all their buildings by 2030.
| Oct 9, 2014
Regulations, demand will accelerate revenue from zero energy buildings, according to study
A new study by Navigant Research projects that public- and private-sector efforts to lower the carbon footprint of new and renovated commercial and residential structures will boost the annual revenue generated by commercial and residential zero energy buildings over the next 20 years by 122.5%, to $1.4 trillion.
| Sep 29, 2014
Snøhetta releases final plan for terraced central library in Calgary
The competition-winning New Central Library is now in the final design stages, after two years of community engagement on the part of design firms Snøhetta and DIALOG.
| Sep 24, 2014
Architecture billings see continued strength, led by institutional sector
On the heels of recording its strongest pace of growth since 2007, there continues to be an increasing level of demand for design services signaled in the latest Architecture Billings Index.
| Sep 22, 2014
4 keys to effective post-occupancy evaluations
Perkins+Will's Janice Barnes covers the four steps that designers should take to create POEs that provide design direction and measure design effectiveness.