The AIA and American Library Association (ALA) announced the winners of this year’s Library Building Awards, recognizing architectural excellence in design and responsiveness to the needs of local community members. The winning designs include two separate nods for the Boston Public Library (for the East Branch and Central Public Library), a mountain-shaped edifice alongside a river in Latvia, and a new project in New Orleans that shows the neighborhood’s resilience in a post-Hurricane Katrina environment.
The judging committee for this year’s awards included jury chair Will Bruder, FAIA, of Phoenix-based Will Bruder Architects; Duncan Ballash, AIA, president and owner of EHDD Architecture; Luren Dickinson, of Beaumont Library District in Beaumont, Calif.; Ameet Doshi, of the Georgia Institute of Technology Library in Atlanta; Alan Grosenheider, of University of California, Santa Barbara Library in Santa Barbara, Calif.; and Alexander Lamis, FAIA, partner at Robert A.M. Stern Architects in New York.
Boston Public Library, Central Library Renovation in Boston
William Rawn Associates
The newly renovated space is designed around the concept of acting as a big urban space that connects the indoors and outdoors, engaging both patrons and passersby, and provides views out to the Beantown’s Avenue of the Arts.
RobertBensonPhotography
East Boston Branch Library in Boston
William Rawn Associates
Located in one of Boston’s youngest and most diverse neighborhoods, where 50 percent of the population are immigrants and under the age of 19, the designers conceived the space as a “welcoming” center for the area while the interiors served as a hub for cross-generational interaction.
Brad Feinknopf
Columbus Metropolitan Library—Whitehall in Columbus, Ohio
JBAD
Sitting on a three-acre site, the community center and technology facility is envisioned as a destination space on the outskirts of the state’s capital.
Indriķis Stūrmanis
National Library of Latvia in Riga, Latvia
Gunnar Birkerts Architects and Gelzis-Smits/Arhetips
The modern building is a newly established anchor in the 800-year-old city and consolidates six buildings worth of content in a 600,000-square-foot space.
Naho Kubota
New York Public Library Stapleton Branch Renovation and Expansion in New York
Andrew Berman Architect
The modern addition to the Carnegie branch library features an exposed wood structure with a glazed façade. Working with the site’s sloping grade, the design team positioned the library’s entrance at grade level, negating the need for steps and improving accessibility.
Timothy Hursley
Rosa F. Keller Library and Community Center in New Orleans
Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
Funded entirely by Federal Emergency Management Agency’s recovery program following Hurricane Katrina, the LEED Silver–certified project restored a 1917 Arts and Crafts bungalow that now acts as a community center, and reconstructed a 6,300-square-foot library wing.
Christian Columbres
University of Oregon Allan Price Science Commons and Research Library Remodel and Expansion in Eugene, Ore.
Opsis Architecture
Per feedback from the university’s student population, the project renovated an existing 48,000-square-foot underground facility and added 4,000-square-foot of ground-level space to ensure better usability for those who need it most.
Chris Cunningham Photography
Varina Area Library in Henrico, Va.
BCWH and Tappe Architects
The new library for an agrarian community outside of Richmond, Va., replaces an aging facility sited on 22 acres that was formerly private land.
See more awards programs from the American Institute of Architects here.
