The aim of this integrated studio project was to design a new neighborhood public library in the heart of the Marigny. Sited along the edge of the Mississippi River, in a block that abuts both historic residential shotgun houses and warehouses for light industry, the proposal seeks to mediate these varying scales and conditions. Giving a new vision on material and form, this public library reinterprets both the warehouse and the shotgun typologies.

Just as unique yet repetitive shotgun homes accumulate into a unified neighborhood block, the proposal deploys three interlocking masses to establish a coherent whole. At the riverside edge, with open space facing the homes, the shift in scale is perceived more gradually and the new neighborhood monument acts as a buffer between the railway and river and the quieter, more idyllic neighborhood.

Further, the tripartite mass allowed for manipulation of the structure to distribute the program in ways that accommodate the diverse functions of the contemporary library.