Monday, November 23, 2009

Friday Night Public Meeting

After five days of meeting with various people and library/museum user groups, we put our thoughts together and presented them on Friday at 5:00.


Community members getting ready for the presentation.




Brian Meissner (ECI-Hyer) summarizing the week. Through meeting with everyone, we felt we produced conceptual building plans and ideas that really reflected community desires, good library/museum design, and sustainable building practices.


After the meeting, it was great to see people looking at the drawings on this table... pointing, talking and asking questions.


Keith urging people to keep the ball rolling on fundraising and getting this project to come to fruition (after being serenaded with a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday).

Finally some landscape...

We finally got to the point with the building that some thought could be given to the site design. We played with something preliminary to begin to talk about landscape and streetscape elements of the project.

Luckily Jae's kids came equipped with wax crayons. So, we sat down to color our own things and help each other out.


Peter Briggs (Corvus Design) getting advice on exactly which shade of green is best used to show some roses in the landscape plan (with a few dots of red here and there).


The pretty fast landscape plan for the site of the site used to begin to talk about connection of the building to adjacent uses, getting the landscape and building to complement one another, opportunities for art, and lower maintenance native plantings.

Friday, November 20, 2009

The Process of Design

Some people have stopped past Soo's B&B to visit and comment, but for those of you that haven't been able to make it, here are a few photos. Design process is about drawing a lot of things to try and workshop ideas and figure things out.


Sometimes (usually?) design is fueled by coffee.


Thomas Hacker (THA Architecture) working with Brian and Jae on Museum/Library floorplan development.


Mary Tougas sharing a cup of tea and comments.


Lots of trace paper... sketch...revise... crumple and move to the next one.


Keith Campbell at the table with us.


Kerry Martin and Keith Campbell dropping by.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

What a view might look like...

We got up on the building that's to the east of the library, and developed a 360 degree panoramic photo from the roof. The left and right edge of the photo is approximately north. (click on it to be taken to a larger version)



Here's what the view looks like from east of this location, down on the site.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

HIgh School Meeting

We met with a group of high school students to show them what we do, and to get input on the project. These are some of the things they mentioned:
  • Arcade (gaming)
  • Conference room
  • Coffee/juice bar
  • Couches
  • Spaces to hang out
  • Art - rotating exhibitions (local perhaps)
  • A space for community awards (display trophies)
  • Books for fun and research
  • An area for teenagers
  • "Kindles" and online reading
  • They go to the current library with parents, alone and friends
  • Free wireless
  • A place to relax
  • Better bike rack(s)
  • More computers
  • Interlibrary loan access
  • Computer access - "Myspace lounge"
  • Board games (candyland, monopoly)
  • Atmosphere (like resurrection art)
  • Music
  • What will the library be named??
  • Views are important
  • Murals (where the wild things are)
  • "Coffee shop feel"
  • Mix of furniture types
  • Dr. Seuss theme
  • Cabin/Chalet feel - "modern log"
  • Fireplace
  • Neoclassical
  • Some round to it... like house on Millionaire's Row
  • Smoothie bar
  • Outside spaces
  • Deck
  • Happy medium between how much stuff is there... open and airy vs. more stuff and comfortable

Brian Meissner (ECI Hyer) showing some images of other Alaskan buildings


A good group providing great input.

Aerial of Seward and the Site

Existing Museum





Existing Library





Community Comment Link

Go to this link to provide us with input, guidance and comments:

Community Comment Link

This link will be kept open, so you can visit more than once to provide information.

Starting to turn input into ink

The design team had been meeting with various stakeholders for the library and museum, and putting pen to paper.


Brian Meissner (ECI Hyer) , Jae Shin (ECI Hyer) and Kent Crandall (RISE)

Design process at work.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Site Panoramas

The links below will take you to another website where you can see panoramic photos taken on the site. You can pan and zoom into the photos to see more detail.

North End of Site
Mid Point of Site
From Alley to West of Site

Monday Night Community Meeting

We met with the community to have a conversation about the library & museum. We recognize that there has been previous process, and much work has already been done on this community library and museum. This was our opportunity to introduce ourselves to the community, and to ask some questions:

How would you finish the sentence, "Our Museum/Library will be:"

  • Attractive
  • Friendly
  • Inviting
  • Welcoming
  • Pleasant
  • Warm
  • Comfortable
  • Modern
  • A gathering place
  • A hearth for the community
  • User friendly
  • A place of great views (bay/mountain)
  • An anchor/signature building
  • An enhancement to the area
  • A 21st century library
  • Wireless
  • Built by August 12, 2012
  • Active
  • Pet friendly (or portions of it)
  • Affordable for construction
  • Affordable for operations and maintenance
  • Naturally lit
  • A source of interlibrary loans/access
  • Provide for traveling exhibits
  • Provide flexible space
  • Designed with future proofing in mind
  • Roomier
  • A place to meet (S/M/L)
  • A place of ambience
  • Designed with best practices
  • Provide for murals
  • Accessible (ADA)
  • Safe/Secure/Open
  • Structurally sound
  • Walkable (concern with ice)
  • Provide proper parking
  • Maintenance friendly
  • A visitor center
  • Provide good meeting space (flexible)

Some of the things that people said related to elements of a vision for the library:

  • The childhood experience some (or all?) of us share with libraries (Bike-able, big tables, inviting, trees/location)
  • Natural setting… bring the beauty inside
  • Student/user haven
  • Generational spaces designed for their users
  • Provide a space where we can be who we are
  • Quiet spaces
  • A place with the ‘spot’ you love
  • Sitting at the kitchen table
  • A place for stories
  • A place where you don’t leave early from meetings
  • A place for gathering
  • A place of impromptu meetings
  • A place to read
  • The beauty of a hearth
  • Prioritize for the ‘reason’ for the building

Some discussion touched on the potential form that the building might take:

  • References or use of historic motifs in Seward (curved entry/cut-off corners)
  • Rhythm and scale
  • 4th Ave structures
  • Use of elements
  • Reference points to buildings
  • Millionaire’s Row

Some 'pieces' of the building also came out in the conversation (some already existing in the building programming):

  • Serving kitchen
  • Meeting spaces
  • Secure storage
  • Archives
  • Indoor plaza
  • Used bookstore
  • Fireplace/hearth
We wrapped up the evening reminding people we would be in town all week, that we welcomed people to drop by and speak to us, and that we would check in with them Friday evening (and also thanked them for their time!)


Brian Meissner (ECI-Hyer) introducing the team and its experience.


Jae Shin (ECI-Hyer reviewing sketches)


The community


Some of the sketches that came out of summarizing our discussion with the group.

Boys & Girls Club Meeting

We met with the Boys and Girls club at their after school program at the elementary school. We asked the kids what they might like to see in their new library:
  • Separate areas for various ages
  • Graduated library cards
  • More computers
  • Reading area
  • Music area
  • Wax museum (Theodore Roosevelt, harry potter)
  • Games – scratch and win to win free stuff (book bags, books)
  • Window Seats
  • Tables
  • Club/fundraiser room
  • Lots of books
  • Separate Girls/Boys sections
  • Gift shop
  • Water fountain
  • Fossils in museum (teeth, ammonites, T-Rex)
  • Computers for reading online books
  • Legos – lego room
  • Audio visual
  • Bean bags
  • Rocking chairs
  • “Kids only” room
  • Chat room
  • Bugs for library (“live science”)
  • Story time table
  • Homework room
  • Puzzles
  • Daycare “baby room”
  • Library & museum rules boards
  • Bathroom
  • Boys & Girls Club Space
  • Electronics Room
  • Graffiti wall (paper on wall or dry-erase board)
  • Family & Friends play room
  • Quiet room (calm and peaceful)
  • Nice seats
  • Windows
  • Art museum
  • Science toom
  • Each room is a specific book type (i.e. adventure room)
  • Holiday decorations (i.e. fake turkeys)
  • Mural
  • Dr. Seuss books
  • Illustrators
  • Table for journaling/journals
  • Space to share a computer (projects)
  • Story writing room (and place to see other kids’ stories)

Project Team Blog

Welcome to the place where we will try to keep you informed on the progress of the Seward City Library and Museum project. We will be posting summaries of the meetings we hold, materials that we develop and other information... and also use this as another connection to you for comments. The design team is composed of:

RISE Alaska - Project Manager (www.risegroup.com)
ECI-Hyer - Architecture (www.ecihyer.com)
THA Architects - Library/Museum Planner (www.thaarchitecture.com)
Corvus Design - Landscape Architecture (www.corvus-design.com)
Aldrich Pears - Interpretive Design (www.aldrichpears.com)
Bill Nelson - Civil & Structural Engineering
AMC - Mechanical & Electrical Engineering (www.AMC-Engineers.com)

We started out the week with our first meeting being with the Building Committee. A great way to start our discussions with people and kicking off this next phase of getting Seward a new Library/Museum.