Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
The Newbern Library, designed and built by four 5th-year Auburn University architecture students at Rural Studio, is an adaptive reuse project of a bank building built in 1906. The preserved masonry shell of the existing building contrasts with the addition, which is clad in local cypress siding. Bookshelves center a new space within the width of the old building, creating a room where readers are immersed in books. The modular bookshelves are made of birch plywood, CNC-milled, finished, and assembled on site. Complementing the larger public space, a series of alcoves within the bookshelves accommodate computers, private study nooks, window seats, storage closets, bathrooms, and access to the outdoors. The artifacts from the original building, such as the old heart pine floors and bank vault door, were repurposed and preserved inside the new space. A courtyard to the north of the building provides library patrons with shaded outdoor reading and activity space. The Newbern Library was completed in May 2015.