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Designing Public Libraries as Unique and Vital Public Spaces

Designing Public Libraries as Unique and Vital Public Spaces. Stan Skrzeszewski, Principal, ASM Consultants John Knox, Vice President, Chamberlain Architect Services Limited Anne Marie Madziak, Consultant, Southern Ontario Library Service. Feb. 3, 2005. Stan Skrzeszewski Principal

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Designing Public Libraries as Unique and Vital Public Spaces

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  1. Designing Public Libraries as Unique and Vital Public Spaces Stan Skrzeszewski, Principal, ASM Consultants John Knox, Vice President, Chamberlain Architect Services Limited Anne Marie Madziak, Consultant, Southern Ontario Library Service Feb. 3, 2005

  2. Stan Skrzeszewski Principal ASM Consultants OLA 2005 Super Conference

  3. Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away! Somehow you'll escape all that waiting and staying. You'll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go! OLA 2005 Super Conference

  4. John Knox Vice President Chamberlain Architect Services Limited OLA 2005 Super Conference

  5. The Role of the Library • The heart of a community • Strong, vital presence within a community • Role unchanged over the years - Provides free, unlimited access to knowledge, culture, and information • Even more important now than ever before OLA 2005 Super Conference

  6. What creates a vital public space? • Usage! What fosters Usage? • A welcoming environment • Interesting Programs • A vibrant atmosphere • A sense of belonging/ownership • A sense of pride OLA 2005 Super Conference

  7. Environment – a sense of Place not just a Design. OLA 2005 Super Conference

  8. Exterior • Easy Access by car, public transit, or on foot • Parking Lot • Available parking • Well lit and secure • Relatively close distance to/from entrance/exit • Design Elements – Unique, Appropriate in Style, Inviting. OLA 2005 Super Conference

  9. Interior • Clear wayfinding • Early opportunity to be greeted by staff • Efficient circulation flow/Effective relationships between program areas • Comfortable seating • Appropriate light levels • Planned interaction between retail and activities • Design Elements – appropriate to programs OLA 2005 Super Conference

  10. To Create Vital Public Space … • Listen, Learn, Lead. We: • Have no preconceived notions • Respond to each point raised at public meetings • And quite often, revise design decisions based on validated and approved requests OLA 2005 Super Conference

  11. To Create Vital Public Space … • Keep the layout flexible so it supports a variety of programs • Provide adequate, functional space for staff/storage OLA 2005 Super Conference

  12. Listening, Learning ….. Needs Assessment Feasibility Studies Reports/Drawings Building Committee/ Stakeholder/Public Meetings Speak with Library Staff Explore the community OLA 2005 Super Conference

  13. Belonging/Ownership • Involvement in the process • Incorporating donated material, services, equipment • Give local trades the opportunity to bid on the work OLA 2005 Super Conference

  14. Belonging/Ownership • Encourage sponsorships of events/volunteers • Encourage use by Community Groups/Local Businesses • Donors’ plaques OLA 2005 Super Conference

  15. A sense of Pride …. • Incorporate elements of history and culture • Create a unique facility with some “WOW” Factor - Details, Views • Create a neighbourhood/ community landmark OLA 2005 Super Conference

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  22. Anne Marie Madziak Consultant Southern Ontario Library System OLA 2005 Super Conference

  23. Placemaking: designing a building or area to make it more attractive to and compatible with the people who use it; planning rooted in the belief that people gravitate to public spaces that convey a sense of place, and the people who use a place are the ones best-suited to shape its design, uses, and activities. OLA 2005 Super Conference

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  26. Third places: the public places on neutral ground where people can gather and interact. OLA 2005 Super Conference

  27. Ray Oldenburg Informal gathering places serve to: • Make citizens feel at home, a sense of belonging • Nourish relationships and a diversity of human contact; sociability instead of isolation • Create a sense of place and community • Invoke a sense of civic pride (lower crime) • Offer sanctuary, a place to relax and unwind • Make life more colorful • Enrich public life and democracy OLA 2005 Super Conference

  28. Successful third places are: Free or inexpensive Highly accessible to neighbourhoods Well situated Welcoming and comfortable Conducive to conversation Ray Oldenburg OLA 2005 Super Conference

  29. Christopher Alexander Describes the quality without a name as being: • Alive • Whole (free of inner contradictions) • Comfortable • Free • Exact (responding to external forces) • Egoless • Eternal OLA 2005 Super Conference

  30. “Everyone knows how beautiful a room is when it has a bay window in it, or a window seat, or a special ledge next to the window, or a small alcove which is entirely glassed. The feeling that rooms with these kinds of places in them are especially beautiful is not merely whimsy. It has a fundamental organic reason behind it.” Christopher Alexander OLA 2005 Super Conference

  31. Identified a number of common characteristics in vibrant public places: Sitting space – choice/ variety/ flexible Sun, wind, trees and water Food Street Triangulation William H. Whyte OLA 2005 Super Conference

  32. Triangulation: the strategy of developing layered, complementary uses in a public space for purposes of creating a convergence of activity OLA 2005 Super Conference

  33. William H. Whyte “Supply creates demand. A good new space builds a new constituency. It stimulates people into new habits … and provides new paths to and from work, new places to pause!” OLA 2005 Super Conference

  34. “Because people enjoy being there, they plant flowers there, and look after them; they keep the garden furniture painted; and even if you go there when no one else is there, you ‘feel’ the presence of life there, because you can sense that people are taking care of it.” Christopher Alexander OLA 2005 Super Conference

  35. Roberta Brandes Gratz “The direction from which a community attacks the issues and the problems does not matter. Everything is connected. Any one piece of the puzzle leads to the next. A farmer’s market or a traffic problem may be the first piece. A battle to keep open a library or an effort to revive an open space may start things going. A fight against a proposed superstore can be the catalyst for renewing downtown … all the threads of the downtown fabric are connected.” OLA 2005 Super Conference

  36. Project for Public Spaces website - www.pps.org OLA 2005 Super Conference

  37. “Inside, the Library boasts a gorgeous reading room that would make anyone feel like royalty … But out in the front, along the street, is where this illustrious institution truly connects with the city around it. A series of well-linked spaces – steps, plazas, little nooks and pathways – provide innumerable places for sitting, meeting, eating and chatting.” New York Public Library OLA 2005 Super Conference

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