Simple Interventions: Library Journal Design Conversations
/JA Partners Ray Johnston and Mona Johnston Zellers were interviewed by LJ Executive Editor, Lisa Peet, following the Library Journal Design Institute in Spokane.
Spokane Public Library, (SPL), WA, served as both host for Library Journal’s May 9 Design Institute and the inspiration for many of the day’s discussions. Reopened in 2022 after an extensive renovation, SPL’s Central Library—as well as the Liberty Park and Shadle Park branches and the Hive, visited during the previous day’s tour (all designed by Group 4 Architecture and Integrus Architecture)—embodied a wide range of library aspirations: creative and beautiful design, responsiveness to community needs, sustainability, resiliency, and a level of flex ready to incorporate innovative programming and staffing.
With its stunning view of the Spokane River and Falls, the Central Library was the perfect place to think about dreaming big. A series of panel conversations throughout the day covered the use of contemporary materials to shape flexible spaces, what modernizing the library means to different clients, the elements of scoping projects from start to finish, and how to manage region-wide builds. The architects and designers from five West Coast firms, all with extensive library construction and renovation experience, had plenty to discuss.
Executive Director Andrew Chanse, who helped drive much of the systemwide reimagining process, credited LJ’s 2016 Design Institute in Bozeman, MT, with helping give him confidence to move forward on SPL’s projects. He hoped, he said, that the Spokane event would similarly inspire other creative undertakings.
Fortunately, the conversation didn’t end in Spokane. LJ circled round with participants to find out what knowledge they brought back from Design Institute and what trends they think libraries looking to build, renovate, or retrofit their spaces should be keeping an eye on. Kudos to our contributors from Anderson Brulé Architects, Group 4 Architecture, Johnston Architects, Noll & Tam Architects, and WRNS Studio for providing us with photos of their recent work and offering a bird’s-eye view of trends to look out for, from ways to incorporate community and staff input to areas of growing concern, new technologies and methods, and thoughts on how to prioritize long wish lists—which, no doubt, grew longer thanks to the ideas sparked at Design Institute.
RJ: Libraries are becoming much more aware of accessibility—they’re culling and reducing collections while growing applications of unusual services and provisions such as soundstages, seed libraries, and makerspaces.
MJZ: It’s a continued expansion of ways of thinking about libraries that started a while ago, and people are continuing to push the envelope when it comes to nontraditional library spaces. Whereas a few years back, it might have been people adding multipurpose spaces into their libraries, now we’re adding a demonstration kitchen and a recording studio and creating space for community partnerships. We have a Discovery Garden where we’re putting power in the outdoor seating elements.
the winthrop library’s wood design was strategic: it allows for wide spans to make the space more flexible, and it conceals acoustical panels to help with noise control / image by benj drummond
RJ: One of my favorite things I heard at the Spokane Design Institute was this idea of volunteerism, that if you wanted to use one of the things that had a fee associated with it—a soundstage, for example—you could exchange teaching hours or tutoring hours for time. That’s just brilliant. I’ve been passing that on to other libraries. In our business, exposure to such a variety of thinking can help spread good ideas to other districts. It suggests good management. The creative thinking of staff is encouraged and nurtured in a way that, when you have a less engaged director, you may not get that kind of synergy, because they’re assuming each staff member is working fine in their category and not mixing up the thinking.
MJZ: It’s interesting to see a lot of libraries flipping their thinking about loud versus quiet. It’s such a culturally specific question: What spaces should be loud and what should be quiet? Traditionally, clients take the attitude of cordoning off the children’s area and putting some glass walls around it, to try and contain the noise. But I think the culture is shifting such that now there are conversations happening: Maybe we make a quiet area that has glass around it that’s just for the adults, and the rest of the library can be loud.
comfy beanbag chairs and a window seat in the teen area help young patrons feel at home in their library / image by lara swimmer
RJ: It’s becoming more and more common to see a really well done acoustic environment. Spokane’s Main Library used a lot of hardscape, which is an old approach to acoustics. Starting in the ’70s, softscape was used—you upholster everything, and it’ll absorb all the sound—but in Spokane it was cool to see the faceted wood. That’s a technique that is more precise and older, of bouncing the sound around in a way that disperses it rather than focusing it on one location.
MJZ: So many libraries have existing infrastructure that feels really dated. There was so much built in the ’70s that’s dark, and there are a lot of columns. Things are siloed and the sightlines and acoustics might not be very good. So they’re trying to do this calculation: What’s the list of menu items that will have the biggest impact, that can help move this branch forward? Those are challenging conversations. But it’s what we need to do, because it’s much more sustainable to keep existing buildings and work with material that’s already in place. The carbon footprint is much lower. For that reason, I’m intrigued by these simple interventions that aren’t as flashy, but can extend the life of a building—what can we do to open them up more, to make them more light-filled? What can we do to increase the acoustic qualities of the spaces so that they work better for people? Those aren’t the sexiest things, but they’re important for extending the lives of these buildings. We’re going to be seeing more of that in the future.
oversized barn doors are engraved with the names of 2000 donors / image by lara swimmer
RJ: One thing that we tend to think about fairly often is lifecycle learning and intergenerational use, where with just a little thought you could make it easy for an elder and a young parent and a little kid to come in and use different aspects of the library but stay in contact with each other. If you can cement the appeal of the library for that little kid, and that connection with the family amplifies that feeling about the library, then you’re going to have a lifelong patron.
You can read this article in its entirety here or in Volume 149 No. 8 August 2024 issue of the Library Journal.