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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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:
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.
Welcome! This is our way of keeping in touch with you and providing another way for you to be a part of the process. Please have a look at what we've summarized and presented here, and you can leave us comments via this link:
