Fayetteville library expansion plan to marry outdoor, indoor elements

Susan Morgan, architect with Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle, speaks Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, at the Fayetteville Public Library. Morgan's team is designing the 80,000-square-foot, $49 million expansion voters approved last year.
Susan Morgan, architect with Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle, speaks Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, at the Fayetteville Public Library. Morgan's team is designing the 80,000-square-foot, $49 million expansion voters approved last year.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The library expansion has taken shape and members of the public got a chance to give their feedback Monday.

The design team with Minneapolis-based Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle presented proposed entrances, floor layouts and how the expansion would connect with the current building. The library will undergo an 80,000-square-foot, $49 million expansion, scheduled to open in 2020. Voters approved a millage increase last year to pay for its construction.

From an aerial view, the expansion will extend south down the sloped terrain, forming a type of U-shaped pattern with a courtyard in the middle. The expansion will have underground parking and two levels.

The first level of the expansion will have a multipurpose room, makerspace and children's area. The multipurpose room will feature movable furniture and will be designed to host a variety of events. A makerspace serves as an area for people to collaborate on projects with the computers and equipment they need. The children's area will go up to the second level.

A park could go onto unused land to the south. The library bought 4 acres next to the current building for $2 million earlier this year after a lengthy court battle involving heirs of the family who used to own the land and Washington Regional Medical Center, who sold the property to the library.

The slope of the ground makes it so the bottom level of the existing parking deck meets up with the second level of the expansion. The library as patrons know it now will become levels three and four of the building.

Collections might be reconfigured to improve the flow between the expansion and the existing building, but nothing substantial will change about the current building, said Susan Morgan, project architect.

"All of that is in development right now, but the spaces you know and love are going to remain the spaces you know and love," she said.

Executive Director David Johnson said the layout fits the topography of the land and will make many of the library's sustainability goals possible. The design incorporates features such as solar arrays for energy, geothermal wells for heating and cooling and water features such as a wetland garden.

The goal is to have a net-zero energy building, generating as much power as it uses to function, Johnson said.

Brad and Martha Palmer came to Monday's presentation with their 2-year-old daughter, Imogene. Martha Palmer teaches kindergarten at Butterfield Elementary, and said she can't wait to bring students on a tour of the new addition.

The couple moved to the city from Indianapolis in 2012. What they saw Monday reminded them of their former town's children's museum, one of the world's largest.

That facility doesn't incorporate active, open spaces like what designers have proposed with the library expansion, the couple said. Outdoor features include reading and learning gardens, discovery walk area near the Frisco Trail, a stage, play area and a stream and plaza.

"This facility stands out from a lot of other places because of the involvement," Brad Palmer said.

NW News on 12/12/2017

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