The DeKalb Public Library is where the past, present and future stand in harmony. The original Haish Memorial Library Building is a 1930’s Deco-Moderne gem on the National Register of Historic Places. The library long ago outgrew this building's modest size.

The design addresses the community’s concerns about adding onto its historic building without compromising the efficiency of an expanded floor plan by repeating the rhythm of the existing building plan, defining a new central building entry that makes all areas of the expanded floor plan equally accessible, and using the language of the existing architecture as a basis for the new without the type of simple imitation that would confuse old and new.