Archinect - News

Fernanda Canales talks to the New York Times about designing better social opportunities in a challenged Mexico

2024-03-04T13:22:00-05:00

“Without opportunities for social interaction, places are more insecure, divided and isolated [...] How can you provide value to a landscape that is neglected? How do you provide an opportunity to see your town in a new way?”

Against a national backdrop poisoned by femicides, border politics, and the equally toxic influence of cartels, Fernanda Canales is making democratic life in underserved Mexican communities more feasible through her highly user-sensitive and socializing designs.

The Mexico City-based architect tells the New York Times' Sam Lubell of her contributions to the government’s $2 billion Programa de Mejoramiento Urbano (or P.M.U.) program, "They will survive local circumstances — issues of budgets, politics and vandalism," adding that "Over time, the public starts to make decisions and inject life. Things change and adapt. Time teaches us what prevails. Often it’s what we can’t imagine now."

Canales was also one of a century profiled in RIBA’s new 100 Women: Architects in Practice, which came out in January and has been reviewed favorably as an essential guide to future equality in the profession. She has been teaching at the UT Austin School of Architecture since the Fall after seeing ...

Gensler and Marvel's new Brooklyn Public Library development creates 'spaces for families not just to read, but to engage'

2022-06-09T15:23:00-04:00

Some big names were on hand last week to celebrate the opening of Gensler and Marvel’s noteworthy new Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) branch in the neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights.

The upgrades now make it the second-largest in the BPL’s system and are part of a larger $52 million land-sale funded push that brings with it 114 units of off-site affordable housing at the site and a suite of upgrades and repairs to nine other branches. BPL President and CEO Linda Johnson called it “the most important rebuilding” in the 125-year history of the institution. New York Mayor Eric Adams was present to note the development’s tie-ins with his political vision of rebuilding and housing policy that will go a long way in reshaping America's largest city over the next few years.

Image © Gregg Richards/Courtesy of Brooklyn Public Library.

“With monumental windows on three sides, the double-height reading room is flooded with natural light dur...

Ukraine's libraries acting as hubs for sheltering, psychological support, and even camouflage classes

2022-03-10T15:42:00-05:00

Libraries are playing vital roles in supporting Ukraine's war effort from giving families shelters during Russian bombing raids to making camouflage nets for the military and countering disinformation.

As reported by NPR, libraries across Ukraine are brimming with activity, full of librarians, readers, refugees, and volunteers. In addition to serving as bomb shelters, they’re hosting the production of camouflage nets for the military, along with home care courses. Libraries are also bringing in specialists to provide psychological help to residents.

Below is a video of the conditions in a children’s library in Mykolaiv, where you can see people sheltering and children amidst the library’s aisles reading books.

Adjaye Associates' Winter Park Library & Events Center opens in Florida

2022-01-05T17:04:00-05:00

Adjaye Associates’ $41.7 million Winter Park Library & Events Center in Winter Park, Florida is now complete. The library debuted to the public on December 13th during a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Developed through a public-private partnership with the City of Winter Park, the library, spanning 35,155 feet across two levels, consists of three separate pavilions located on the northwest corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Park. As per the architects, “...this new civic and cultural hub embodies the values of the park’s namesake and is envisioned as a space for community empowerment and edification.” The pavilions are described as a “micro-village”, in which each have a different scale and function, yet share a common formal language. There’s the two-story library, event center with rooftop terrace, and welcome portico that ushers users from the street and unifies the three structures. They’re each composed of rose-pigmented concrete.

Photo: © Dror Baldinger

As stated by the archit...

Cobe unveils book-inspired winning design for Gothenburg University's new library competition

2021-06-05T15:00:00-04:00

Plans for a new library at Gothenburg University have been revealed after a search by the Swedish consulting firm Akademiska Hus to add what is now the newest chapter in the long architectural history of the nation’s second-largest city.

Göteborg Universitetsbibliotek. Photo courtesy of Cobe

Danish firm Cobe won the commission with a fitting design meant to mimic the curvature of a book’s pages in an imposing 16,000 square meter space adjacent to Gothenburg's most important cultural institutions.

The new building, which will replace smaller libraries serving different academic departments in arts and humanities, uses extruded white ceramic panels to create a volume interposed with vertical patterns that work the building’s profile into an eight-story literary metaphor Cobe founder Dan Stubbergaard feels is central to its function and educational mission.

Göteborg Universitetsbibliotek. Photo courtesy of Cobe

“The book serves as the inspiration and point of departure for the design,...

American Library Association and Google partner to develop "library entrepreneurship centers"

2020-07-31T13:09:00-04:00

The (ALA) has named 13 libraries that were selected to receive a total of $1.3 million to develop their library entrepreneurship centers. Part of Libraries Build Business, an initiative established by Google.org to enable libraries across the country to increase the number of business creators they serve from low-income and underrepresented backgrounds. The program aims to provide services to 15,000 people over the course of 18 months.

"Libraries Build Business showcases libraries’ role as catalysts for equitable opportunity, just when it’s needed most," said ALA President Julius Jefferson in a statement. "In this time of economic hardship for many, the challenges are most acute for communities of color and people with low incomes. Even in a better economy, fewer than 30% of U.S. businesses were minority-owned. By expanding services such as business classes and workshops, mentorship opportunities, database and research expertise, co-working and makerspaces and specialized equipment ...

What will the future hold for libraries as they reopen?

2020-06-23T12:59:00-04:00

As restaurants and business across the nation plan to reopen, skepticism towards the long-term safety of these initiatives continues to grow. Although many in the U.S. approach these coming changes with forethought and understanding, several individuals throw caution to the wind and believe the virus is no longer a "serious issue." Be that as it may, public institutions like libraries are planning for their reopening, yet the nature of "going to the library" may be forever changed.

In a piece written by The New York Times writer Elizabeth A. Harris, she discusses how libraries across the U.S. are planning to provide modified services to the community. These public institutions foster a safe space to learn, sit, and participate in community-led activities for children, adults, and seniors alike. However, as safety precautions and social distancing initiatives increase demands on these "community living rooms," as Harris puts, they may change forever.

"Libraries around the country are...

Accessibility lapses at Hunters Point library continue to draw ire online and in person

2019-11-06T13:17:00-05:00

In the weeks following the much-anticipated opening of the Steven Holl Architects-designed Hunters Point Library in Queens, New York City, much of the public discourse regarding the structure has focused on a collection of accessibility and design oversights embodied by the library's design.

Photo © Steven Holl Architects.

A recent article in The New York Times highlights several of these issues, which include the location of the library's adult fiction collections along a series of inaccessible terraced levels as well a relative lack of elevators in the facilities. According to the article, the complex, which was in the works for nearly two decades, is served by a singular lift, a condition that has made the building difficult to navigate, especially for patrons with disabilities and parents who have children. The arrangement has left many on social media with a sour taste, as suggested fixes, including having librarians access collections by hand for patrons, have been interpreted...

Snøhetta pierces a new library at Temple University with a dramatic skylight and heroic entry portals

2019-09-23T14:30:00-04:00

Global architecture firm Snøhetta has completed a sculptural library complex for Temple University in Philadelphia. The Charles Library facility opened its doors for the Fall 2019 semester a few weeks ago and is designed as a collaborative social learning space that reinterprets the traditional research library typology.

The building is wrapped in granite tiles to match the surrounding campus buildings. Image courtesy of © Michael Grimm.

Wrapped by a collection of generous plazas and filled with dramatic, multi-story spaces shaped around dramatic architectural volumes, the building aims to unite traditional academic resources with interdisciplinary and technology-focused facilities and student-oriented study and social spaces.

The lower levels of the building are faced with vertical bands of granite to match the campus buildings surrounding the library, while the complex is capped by a glass-walled upper story and a green roof. The building is bisected by a large three-story atrium ...

"Georectification," historical urban photography, and archiving Foursquare check-ins: Inside the New York City's "urban memory infrastructure" bank

2019-08-06T09:06:00-04:00

In 2011, the New York Public Library established an official unit for digital experimentation—NYPL Labs. Over the six years that followed, what began as a small research and development outfit for special digital projects grew into a visionary think-and-do tank for making the library’s two centuries of collections digital and usable for the years to come. A hybrid team of technologists, librarians, and designers would start to assemble the building blocks of an urban memory infrastructure.

Shannon Mattern, associate professor of media studies at The New School, and Ben Vershbow, founder of NYPL Labs, discuss the recent digitalization efforts undertaken by the New York Public Library system as it works to turn the library's "vast collections into usable data, connecting maps, photographs, menus and community memories, NYPL Labs created a series of multilayered projects that point the way to a new information ecosystem."

In this fascinating and thought-provoking conversation, Mattern and Vershbow touch on the library's efforts to stitch together insurance maps to create scrollable, Google Maps-like resources, the NYPL's store of digitized and translated restaurant menus, and the New York City tree census, among many topics.

Describing the fundamental role libraries play in preserving cultural and spatial memories, Vershbow says, "Libraries fill a need for historic preservation, a memory function. And I think that a community without access to its history is sort of li...

SOM designs the first public library in Chicago's West Loop

2019-01-22T15:55:00-05:00

Chicago's West Loop neighborhood celebrated the inauguration of its very first public library last Thursday. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the two-story library — which is the City of Chicago's 81st branch — was once part of the Harpo Studios campus and was donated to the city by Sterling Bay, as part of the West Loop's ongoing development.

Photo © Tom Harris.

Originally formed by two conjoined buildings, the 16,500 square-foot library preserves the building's industrial character with its weathered steel exterior and renovated interiors that reintroduce the building's original bow-truss ceilings and skylights to create a warm, loft-like space.

The library's entrance shows off a quote by 13th-century Persian poet Rumi that serves as the central narrative of the library's design: “Raise your words, not your voice; It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” The quote “serves as the inspiration for the words and stories that create a unified design for the library,” SOM des...

With help from the local community, Michael K. Chen Architecture designs new Children's Library for a Bronx homeless shelter

2018-12-07T15:29:00-05:00

Many of us fondly look back on childhood memories of going to the local library. The new Children's Library at the Concourse House — a Bronx-based shelter that serves women with young children who are transitioning out of homelessness — was created to bring that meaningful, formative experience to kids who may not have access to their own books.

Designed pro-bono by New York-based Michael K. Chen Architecture (MKCA), the Children's Library took over an underused mezzanine space in the shelter. Underneath a vaulted ceiling, it now offers a welcoming, playful learning environment that's flexibly designed for individual and group readings, story time, and other book-related programming.

Photo: Alan Tansey.

The space sure wouldn't feel like a library without the round, illuminated shelving unit, which is now filled with about 1,200 children's books donated by Sisters Uptown Bookstore. The shelving unit also serves as a permeable protective barrier be...

Why building a neighborhood library can take so long to complete

2018-03-30T15:04:00-04:00

Today’s libraries have also evolved into complex institutions compressed into small spaces, making their design needs equally intricate. ... In the end, the problem of how to build good public architecture briskly and frugally has little to do with design and everything to do with bureaucracy. Virtually no one feels the urgency or has the clout to reform a sclerotic system.

A literary Giro d’Italia

2017-07-24T00:32:00-04:00

Most of Italy’s splendid old libraries got their starts as the private collections of a humanist noble or cardinal...Where the Angelica is small, plush and perfectly faceted, the Casanatense is spartan and muscular. The Angelica reflects the wealth of its Augustinian founders, whose church, the Basilica di Sant’Agostino, adjoins the library, while the Casanatense shows its Dominican roots in its deep collection of books and codices on Church doctrine and natural history.

David Laskin reflects on a trip he took, earlier his year, to Venice, Rome, Florence and Milan, where he visited a sampling of Italy's many historic libraries.

RAIC distinguishes Montreal's Bibliothèque du Boisé with 2017 Green Building Award

2017-04-11T20:20:00-04:00

Built to serve Saint-Laurent's diverse community in Montreal, the Bibliothèque du Boisé has collected another honorable accolade. Today, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada awarded the public library with its 2017 Green Building Award. The award will be presented during the RAIC/OAA Festival of Architecture in Ottawa on May 24 to 27.

After winning the City of Montreal's design competition, the Cardinal Hardy + Labonté Marcil + Eric Pelletier architecte consortium designed the 6,000 square-meter LEED-Platinum library, which was inaugurated in 2013. (Eric Pelletier architecte and Cardinal Hardy merged with Lemay in 2013 and 2014, respectively.)

Photos © Doublespace Photography

With ample natural lighting and warm touches of wood, the building comprises various cultural and community spaces: the library, administration, exhibit space, museum archives, meeting rooms, youth areas, and a cafe.

Photo © Yien Chao.

Photos © Doublespace Photography.

As for sustainability strategies, the bu...

schmidt hammer lassen's State Library Victoria 2020 redesign

2017-03-31T19:43:00-04:00

It's been almost a year since schmidt hammer lassen and Architectus' team won the competition to redevelop the State Library Victoria in Melbourne, Australia's oldest and busiest public institution...‘Our concept provides a strong 'design line' that will act as a framework to guide present and future works,’ Morgen Schmidt says.

Courtesy of schmidt hammer lassen.

Studio Ma's "masterful texture" wins AIA Arizona's "Firm of the Year" Award

2017-03-16T13:21:00-04:00

Studio Ma may be small, but their work is mighty, at least according to the Arizona chapter of the AIA. The woman-owned firm, which has completed projects for Princeton University as well as a series of museums, public libraries and mixed-use housing developments, won the AIA's "Firm of the Year" award for the wide variety and complexity of their work, which the institute described as being "both smart and palpable, with a masterful use of texture."

This is yet another in a series of accolades for the firm, including being placed in the "Design Vanguard" by Architectural Record. “In our work, we strive to create building solutions that resonate with the surrounding context both large and small, in harmony with their greater environment,” said owner Christiana Moss. “This is essential to our client promise, to deliver innovative, sustainable and unique designs to forward-thinking institutions and individuals.” Congratulations, all!

Clark Nexsen's Rachel Murdaugh Wins Chronicle Books’ Choice Award in the Little Free Library Design Competition

2017-03-07T13:10:00-05:00

Describing her entry, Murdaugh writes, "The components flat pack easily, and the hinging construction of the frame streamlines assembly. Simply unfold the base frame, attach the flanges, and construct the cabinet and seat according to an instruction pamphlet using provided hardware. In effect, this design maximizes the functionality of the book kiosk as a means of emphasizing its role as an intersection of community and learning, while elegantly maintaining ease of assembly.”

Little Free Libraries can be found in front yards, community centers, and public spaces all over the world. They support literacy and provide access to books on the community level. The first Little Free Library was created in 2009; now there are over 40,000 Little Free Library sites stewarded in over 70 countries, exchanging millions of books a year.

Chronicle Books partnered with Little Free Library and the AIA's San Francisco chapter on the first-ever Little Free Library Design Competition this past October challenging designers to come up with the perfect Little Free Library. The competition brief asked entrants to consider "the height difference between child and adult patrons, motion sensor lighting, balancing form and function, and having a place for a late-night dog walker to tie up their pup so they could do some perusing."

The winners of the competition were recently announced, with the entry from Rachel Murdaugh of Clark Nexsen’s Asheville office selected as the Chronicle B...

Inside the library of the future

2016-01-01T16:11:00-05:00

“Intermittently, over the past thirty years it’s been the internet is going to kill libraries, Google is going to kill the libraries, eBooks are going to kill the libraries, and it never has actually happened.”

"The Edge, Queensland’s experimental library of the future, is tucked away next to the State Library of Queensland in a concrete bunker-like building that stretches along the Brisbane river.

The building itself has had a varied history — six years ago it was the Gallery of Modern Art, before that a restaurant, and even before that it was the home of the Queensland theatre company.

Now, it is an experimental space housing of what all libraries look like could look like one day."

Construction of Steven Holl-designed Queens Library is underway

2015-05-22T16:20:00-04:00

Construction of the forthcoming Queens Library has begun at Center Boulevard and 48th Avenue in Hunters Point of NYC's Long Island City. Steven Holl Architects won the commission back in 2010 to design the new $30.6 million public library. Surrounded by recently built skyscraper condominiums and nearby attractions like the Gantry waterfront and Louis Kahn's Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, the Queens Library is set up to become the latest landmark for the changing neighborhood.

The library's new design was developed in effort to provide more communal space for local residents and create new connections to surrounding areas in the neighborhood. The library is encased within an exposed concrete square volume coated in aluminum for a "subtle sparkle". Users would move up and along a series of bookshelf-flanked stairs and will encounter the separate children's, teen, and adult areas of the building's fluid program. Glazed cuts in the facade also further open up the building and give views o...

AIA/ALA Library Building Award winners bolster the value in caring for community libraries

2015-04-06T19:16:00-04:00

The arched ceilings, stained glass windows, and other embellished details of some of the world's oldest university libraries or contemporary hotspots like, say, OMA's glass-clad Seattle Public Library get enough attention when it comes to the "best" library designs. While those libraries are impressive in their own regard, smaller and local community libraries are equally valuable. They can be that much-needed catalyst to revive a neighborhood or that comfortable quiet haven to get work done or temporarily escape from it all (including napping). Even as library archives become increasingly digital, libraries are evolving facilities that shouldn't be taken for granted.

In this spirit, the AIA and the American Library Association (ALA) like to recognize and promote local libraries that are considered to be exemplary models of stellar library design in their Library Building Awards program. The awards jury (listed at the bottom) selected six projects for 2015:

Cedar Rapids Public Library...

Wilkinson Eyre-renovated Weston Library at Oxford now reopened

2015-03-26T13:58:00-04:00

Beginning as the New Bodleian Library, the Weston Library at Oxford University was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and constructed in the 1930s. Although construction finished in 1940, wartime purposes delayed the building's official opening in 1946. For the most part, the building remained unaltered other than the addition of the Indian Institute as a south-facing roof extension in 1966-69 by architect Robert Potter and other minor changes in 2010. Then in 2011, London-based Wilkinson Eyre Architects began renovating the Grade II building, which reopened to the public this past weekend.

The £80 million redesign is part of the Bodleian's efforts to better preserve -- and promote -- their vast special collection of books, manuscripts, and other historical objects. In their redesign, Wilkinson Eyre vied to revamp the building's infrastructure while respecting its heritage. As if the collections weren't already enough to gaze in awe at, Wilkinson Eyre also added new reading rooms, r...

2014 Chicago Prize winners envision the Obama Presidential Library

2015-02-13T18:06:00-05:00

Although an American president has the right to having a dedicated Presidential Library, it's no surprise that the museum-library-shrine typology can spark debate and criticism regarding its true civic purpose. As plans for the Barack Obama Presidential Library appear to slowly take shape, the Chicago Architectural Club organized the 2014 Chicago Prize ideas competition that invited architects to send their own speculative designs of the Obama Presidential Library. The latest competition aimed to initiate further discussion on how the presidential library typology can be reimagined.

At the end of the competition, the jury (listed at the bottom) selected two winners and three honorable mentions:

↓ WINNER: Zhu Wenyi, Fu Junsheng, and Liang Yiang

↓ WINNER: Aras Burak Sen

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

↓ Design Team: Dániel Palotai

↓ Design Team: Drew Cowdrey and Trey Kirk

↓ Design Team: Ann Lui and Craig Reschke

To find out more, click here.

2014 Chicago Prize Jury:
Andy Metter (Epstein); Brian Lee (SOM); ...

Restoration of Alvar Aalto’s Viipuri Library wins 2014 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize

2014-11-04T17:51:00-05:00

The Finnish Committee for the Restoration of the Viipuri Library with the Central City Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborg recently won the 2014 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize for restoring Alvar Aalto's historic Viipuri Library in Vyborg, Russia. Established in 2008, the prize is awarded biennially for an innovative architectural or design solution that has preserved or enhanced a modern landmark or group of landmarks.

The biennial Knoll Prize will be presented at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City on December 1, followed by a free public lecture from the winners. The prize includes a cash award of $10,000 and a limited edition Mies van der Rohe-designed Barcelona Chair from Knoll.

The Viipuri Library, c. 1935 ↓

Find more photos and other details on Bustler.

How Andrew Carnegie Built the Architecture of American Literacy

2014-10-29T13:48:00-04:00

Between 1893 and 1919— 3-decade run referred to as the Golden Age of the American public library system—Carnegie paid to build 1,689 libraries in the U.S. These seeded the DNA for nearly every American library built before the end of World War II. That may explain in part why there is no central accounting for Carnegie's libraries, which were built without any oversight from a formal program or foundation: Even libraries that aren't historical Carnegie libraries share their aesthetic philosophy.

Five teams selected to participate in the Re-Envisioning Branch Libraries Design Study in New York

2014-07-14T18:23:00-04:00

Although anyone with Internet access can do a quick search online, nothing replaces a brick-and-mortar public library for quality resources and info — yet these centers are consistently overlooked by city policymakers. After setting up an RFQ for the Re-Envisioning Branch Libraries Design Study in New York, the Architectural League and the Center for an Urban Future selected five interdisciplinary teams out of 45 submissions.

They are:

Andrew Berman Architect | Library Development Solutions  | Neil Donnelly | AEA Consulting | Auerbach Pollock Friedlander
Marble Fairbanks with James Lima Planning + Development and Special Project Office
MASS Design Group
SITU Studio
UNION

To find out more, head over to Bustler.

What is the future of the library?

2013-05-16T18:36:00-04:00

For the first time since Henri Labrouste (1801-1875), currently the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, formulated the conception of the new, democratic library, the central library is fighting for survival. The relevance of these gloriously inflated book boxes is being questioned in an age that looks to the Internet for its intellectual resources.

Shedding its Fusty Architectural Past, Philly Welcomes Nordic Starchitect Snøhetta

2013-03-28T19:40:00-04:00

The latest evidence of Philadelphia’s architectural comeback? The Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta is coming to town for a project at Temple University. “We have a fantastic tradition of quality architeture and urbanism in Philadelphia, but we do go through low ebbs in that tradition,” says Harris Steinberg, the executive director of PennPraxis, the clinical arm of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design.

The Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta has designed some of the most notable buildings and public spaces in the world over the last 15 years. The new Oslo Opera House. Egypt’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina. A reconfigured Times Square in New York, and a massive expansion of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Next up? Temple University’s library, on a still-gritty stretch of Broad Street between Montgomery and Norris in North Philadelphia. Snøhetta director and co-founder Craig Dykers is delivering a lecture on campus next week, sharing some of his firm’s work with Temple students and a general audience of designers, architects and urbanists.

Dykers might shed some light on Snøhetta’s early stage thinking for the library project, but design work has not yet begun, so don’t expect any renderings.

Even so, Dykers is likely to address a full house. The Oslo-based firm, which was featured in a glowing 5,400-word New Yorker profile in January, is very much in vogue. Plenty of its...