Libraries remain one of the typologies that colleges and universities continue to invest in avidly. And most new construction and renovation seems to focus on creating spaces where students and even faculty can collaborate.
A recent example is the $15 million, 21,000-sf expansion of LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, N.Y., which debuted May 12. This library, with more than 650,000 visitors annually, is one of the campus’s most heavily used spaces, and its expansion “is long overdue,” says the college’s president Gail O. Mellow.
The expansion converted a section of the second floor at the college’s E-building, which had been used for offices and classrooms, into more library space above the library’s existing mezzanine. It made the existing, previously single-floor, library 60% larger, and increased its seating capacity 74% to 732 by adding 312 workstations powered by Internet connections in each.
The new floor includes a 5,750-sf courtyard reading room, the 2,790-sf Thomson Reading Room, a 1,570-sf media lab, 1,360-sf archive room, a video editing room, a recording room, a language lab, offices, 11 group study rooms, restrooms, storage spaces, and mechanical and data rooms. There are also 50 new offices.
To achieve this expansion, the construction team—which included IBI Group Gruzen Samton (architect), Stalco Construction (GC), and AECOM (CM)—removed the original stairs from the main floor to the mezzanine, and cut a 50x60-ft opening into the concrete slab of the second-floor library space for a new structural steel staircase with wooden treads and handrails.
The construction team cut a 50x60-ft opening in the concrete slab of the new second-floor library space to accommodate a new staircase. Image: Ola Photography
The opening of the second floor is an architectural feature with glass sides that allow patrons to see into the library.
The challenges of this project included working while the existing library was in operation. Construction crews accessed the site through the exterior wall opening, and materials deliveries came through a ramp or a hoist through the second-floor opening. (The new stair was carried in sections through the exterior all and assembled onsite.) The crews never had access to the building’s elevator.
A temporary wall mitigated noise and dust. And when possible, the crews worked while students were away, on weekends and during spring break.
Other stakeholders on this project included the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. LaGuardia Community College is part of the City University of New York system, and educates 50,000 New Yorkers annually. Its student population is largely lower-income, new-immigrant, or otherwise disadvantaged.
The Building Team included Joseph R. Loring & Associates (MEP), Ysrael A. Seinuk, P.C. (SE), and Whitehouse Lighting Design (lighting). The library’s atrium space above the stair features three oversized round light fixtures, which can be lowered automatically for maintenance.
Phase 2 of this project will focus on the first floor, and renovations will be based in part on input from students, faculty, and staff, according to the college
Related Stories
| Oct 13, 2010
New health center to focus on education and awareness
Construction is getting pumped up at the new Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado, Denver. The four-story, 94,000-sf building will focus on healthy lifestyles and disease prevention.
| Oct 13, 2010
Community center under way in NYC seeks LEED Platinum
A curving, 550-foot-long glass arcade dubbed the “Wall of Light” is the standout architectural and sustainable feature of the Battery Park City Community Center, a 60,000-sf complex located in a two-tower residential Lower Manhattan complex. Hanrahan Meyers Architects designed the glass arcade to act as a passive energy system, bringing natural light into all interior spaces.
| Oct 12, 2010
University of Toledo, Memorial Field House
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Memorial Field House, once the lovely Collegiate Gothic (ca. 1933) centerpiece (along with neighboring University Hall) of the University of Toledo campus, took its share of abuse after a new athletic arena made it redundant, in 1976. The ultimate insult occurred when the ROTC used it as a paintball venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Owen Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Officials at Michigan State University’s East Lansing Campus were concerned that Owen Hall, a mid-20th-century residence facility, was no longer attracting much interest from its target audience, graduate and international students.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cell and Genome Sciences Building, Farmington, Conn.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Administrators at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington didn’t think much of the 1970s building they planned to turn into the school’s Cell and Genome Sciences Building. It’s not that the former toxicology research facility was in such terrible shape, but the 117,800-sf structure had almost no windows and its interior was dark and chopped up.
| Oct 6, 2010
From grocery store to culinary school
A former West Philadelphia supermarket is moving up the food chain, transitioning from grocery store to the Center for Culinary Enterprise, a business culinary training school.
| Sep 16, 2010
Green recreation/wellness center targets physical, environmental health
The 151,000-sf recreation and wellness center at California State University’s Sacramento campus, called the WELL (for “wellness, education, leisure, lifestyle”), has a fitness center, café, indoor track, gymnasium, racquetball courts, educational and counseling space, the largest rock climbing wall in the CSU system.
| Sep 13, 2010
Community college police, parking structure targets LEED Platinum
The San Diego Community College District's $1.555 billion construction program continues with groundbreaking for a 6,000-sf police substation and an 828-space, four-story parking structure at San Diego Miramar College.
| Sep 13, 2010
Campus housing fosters community connection
A 600,000-sf complex on the University of Washington's Seattle campus will include four residence halls for 1,650 students and a 100-seat cafe, 8,000-sf grocery store, and conference center with 200-seat auditorium for both student and community use.
| Sep 13, 2010
'A Model for the Entire Industry'
How a university and its Building Team forged a relationship with 'the toughest building authority in the country' to bring a replacement hospital in early and under budget.