Title: Richland Library
Location of Proejct: Columbia, South Carolina
Project Completion Date: 09/22/2017
Firm Name: BOUDREAUX

Short Description: A 1990s urban icon has been reimagined as a model 21st century library experience. The interior renovation of the Richland Main Library encompassed just over 175,000 square feet and four floors focused on improved customer service and increased public gathering spaces to promote learning, creating and sharing. Part of a bond referendum with limited funding, the design updated infrastructure while focusing dollars on the public experience. With creative placemaking, user experience, infusion of color and integration of public art at the center of a participatory design process, what was once a storehouse for books is now a celebration of community.

Architect's Statement: Strategies developed in collaboration with a visionary owner to guide the design process include:
Celebrate and enhance original architectural features
While no longer meeting programmatic needs, the original building, a 1996 AIASC Honor Award winner, still stood as a city landmark. Our interior design sought to enhance key character-defining elements of the original design. The north and west facades feature street to ceiling truss-supported curtain walls. By reducing the shelving height throughout, our design increased the reverberation of this feature, extending light and views into the heart of the building. Additionally, the exposed concrete structure and column grid was treated as sacred, becoming a neutral, but celebrated canvas for the infusionof warm wood tones and vibrant color featured in our design.
Creative placemaking
Our design approach aimed to activate the existing features of the library with the intention of creating welcoming public spaces that promote people’s health, happiness, and wellbeing. First, we conceived of the Hampton Street edge as a “Main Street.” Previously an unprogrammed and sterile pass-through, it now benefits from a central, identifiable entry portal enlivened by a flexible art gallery and café. The space also serves as an after-hours event space and houses a weekly Farmer’s Market. After passing through a new, custom wood entry portal, users emerge into a sky-lit escalator atrium. Through the lens of creative placemaking, we conceived of this space the “Town Square” at the heart of the library. With all activity radiating from this central void, wayfinding and user experience were significantly improved throughout the building.
Connecting interior and exterior
Our design leverages “Main Street” to enhance the entry experience and sense of arrival. The building has two primary entries along Hampton Street: One from the upper parking lot to the west, and a pedestrian and transit-oriented entry to the east connecting toward the city center. Previously stark and unwelcoming, the parking entry now features a outdoor plaza where library programming can activate the exterior and animate the entry. The interior threshold into the library, now demarcated by a custom wood portal, was moved from the east end to a central location, aligning the “Main Street” edge with “Town Square.”. Access to the popular children’s spaces on the lower, Garden level of the building was enhanced with a new Garden level entry from a lower parking area. A new landscaped Garden level entry plaza opens into a color-filled gathering at space at the base of the “Town Square” escalator atrium.
User experience as design guide
The design process was guided by a customer service philosophy featuring robust public input and staff user experience workshops. Programming strategies included creating a repository for high density storage for infrequently accessed materials, resulting in additional space for public gathering, small group study and meetings. Most popular destinations and frequently accessed services and materials were located closest to the entries and “Town Square,” including a flexible auditorium space with operable glass walls, the local history room and the film and sound collection. Books are displayed for easy browsing among casual and comfortable seating. Maker spaces abound including a dedicated teen space, a video editing room, artist in residence studios, and a wood and craft shop. A film screening room is centerpiece of the second level. Its glass windows framed by custom shelving create nooks for curling up with a book and maintain views across expansive floor plates. As one moves up in the building, spaces increasingly support quiet, individual study. The upper level, dedicated to business and careers, features workforce development and social service support.
Infusion of warmth and color
With the concrete structure as a backdrop, the re-envisioned interiors feature wood accents at key locations and infuse vitality and color throughout. Colorful, carefully-crafted felt walls and ceiling coverings enhance experience and acoustics throughout. Rebuilt shelving, animated by new endcaps in an ombré of color, are especially dynamic when viewed from the outside at night, and furnishings were selected to reinforce the color story.
Integration of public art
With 1% of construction cost committed to public art by the Library Board, the design process was enriched through collaboration with local artists. Enid Williams agreed to license one of her paintings to Milliken, and in collaboration with our interior design team, the main level carpet became a piece of public art. The magic of the puppet show was enhanced with the design team’s custom die-cut panels that create a moiré effect as the “curtain” opens in the Children’s Story Time area. While later phases were still under construction, the first artist in residence, Marius Valdes, was at work inspiring the creation of community book mark doodles which he then collaged to create the wall covering that animates the Garden Level Teen Center.
The reimagined Richland Library has become a community studio where ideas are explored and passions uncovered.