FOCUS:  Wando Mount Pleasant Library is a library of the future

By David Burt, special to Charleston Currents  |  When Wando Mount Pleasant Library celebrates its ribbon cutting on June 10, it will mark a new era in our libraries and the ways in which we interact with them.

The area’s original branch library was built in the 1970s, when a library was primarily dedicated to books: storing, organizing and sharing them. Card catalogues and date stamps may loom large in our memories; however, evolving technologies have brought new opportunities and a new paradigm of the library experience.

An innovative oculus brings in light in the children’s area.

The new 40,000-square-foot facility on the corner of Carolina Park Boulevard and Park Avenue brings the library into the modern era with connectivity driving the design. The design aligns active spaces with the roadways to activate the facades, showcasing the library’s lively programming to the community. The form is a direct response to the site’s linear shape and the adjacent wetland to the northeast.

The exterior materials include indigenous brick of Savannah moss color, low-maintenance wood-like elements for warmth and texture, and expansive glazing to maximize transparency. The entry wall is bound together by white and black elements nodding to the printed word; the stone is pushed and pulled like books on a shelf.

The interior design is inspired by the nature of the site, with the gentle effects of filtered sunlight knit throughout the building. As guests travel through the library, the materials’ palette tells the “story” of nature. A textural wood plank wall mimics tree bark, while the adult area’s floor integrates the color gradations of a sweetgrass basket. The turquoise and blue ceiling in the young adult area flowing water, and the children’s wing plays on the question “how does the grass grow?”

Based on input from multiple community meetings in which members of the public shared wish lists for program spaces, adult areas and stacks feature small breakout spaces for contemplation and reading.  Young adults have an age-appropriate enclave rather than a meld of kid/adult space. The children’s space features playful alcoves pushing beyond the boundaries of the wall, round skylights creating pools of light on the grass-colored carpet, and a titanium fish-scale oculus forming an inviting space to curl up with a book. Daylighting strategies minimize the need for artificial lighting, lowering energy use and creating a welcoming interior environment.

The high-tech interior features a glass-encased automated material handling system which transports and sorts books via conveyor belt and encourages families to watch the library in action. To accommodate evolving technologies, a raised access floor supports easy adaptations and flexible uses. Special program spaces encourage patrons to engage in their own high-tech projects with dedicated digital workspaces. These areas will support activities from family portraits to audio recordings to video editing. For hands-on types, makerspaces will accommodate creative projects.

Other amenities include group study rooms, a multipurpose auditorium seating 250, mothers’ lounges, quiet areas, and conference rooms tailored to the needs of people who work from home and may enjoy readily-available spaces for client meetings and other entrepreneurial support options.  Outside, an expansive patio and bermed seating around a favorite live oak tree create storytelling spaces. A bioswale at the window blurs the lines between inside and out.

LS3P’s Brian Wurst worked closely with Wando’s librarians and stakeholders to understand and design for the needs of the modern library.

“We wanted to create a place encouraging imagination, reflection, and access to multimedia information for a multigenerational user group,” Wurst explains. “We created more than 20 hand-drawn studies for the design and used them as conversation tools in order to engage with the librarians and let them help drive the location of the programs.”

David Burt is a vice president in Charleston at LS3P Associates, the architecture firm that designed the new library.  Have a comment?  Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com