Public Library Project, The High Quality Green Buildings in Washington
November 28th, 2011 - Posted in Architectural, Public Building Interior
Public library project has contributed a number of high quality green buildings to Western Washington state. The Kenmore Library architect by Weinstein A|U Seattle, WA, is located just north of Seattle in suburban Kenmare, in a context of 1960s retail buildings, surface parking, and a busy highway. The client, King County Library System, issued a public Request For Qualifications for the design of a new library. Kenmore Library to address the community’s need for public space, and the library system’s need for a flexible building.
Public library project is located in a suburban environment that lacks public facilities and pedestrian amenities, and represent a recognizable public space that is inviting and welcoming to all members of the community. The building design brings the reading room to the street, a large garden space is provided, and parking is placed underground. The building design that provides flexible and adaptable space, to accommodate future developments in library services. This led us to the use of a long span roof structure system as a central design concept. Although lightweight tension structures are not often used in the U.S. because the high strength steel members required are manufactured in Europe, we felt that a lightweight, delicate, and exposed tension rod roof structure system would complement the open floor plan and the daylighting design strategies that we proposed. In the resulting large space without interior partitions, the use of a raised floor system for distribution of conditioned air, power, and data, provides extremely flexible infrastructure to support reconfiguration of the space as services and uses evolve over time.
The extensive use of daylighting was also a central design strategy. A large scale physical model was built during schematic design, which was used for thorough daylighting analysis, As a result, the library reading room is fully daylit, with abundant and indirect natural light throughout the space. Electric lighting output is calibrated to the amount of daylight present, using a digital control system and daylight sensors as a part of Public library project.
Information :
Architect : Weinstein A|U Seattle, WA
Lead Designer/Project Architect/Project Manager : Matt Aalfs, AIA
Structural Engineer : Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Landscape Architect : Swift Company
Lighting Designer : WSP Flack+Kurtz
Interior Designer : Weinstein A|U
Contractor : Sierra Construction Company
Site Area : 17,000 sf
Building Area : 20,000 sf (10,000-sf parking garage below 10,000-sf library)
Photos : Lara Swimmer
