Glen Oaks Branch Library
Queens Library
This project replaces an existing one story facility with a new 18,000sf high performance, LEED certified building located at the juncture of a low scale commercial/institutional area with a suburban residential neighborhood.
Glen Oaks Branch Library replaces an existing one story facility with a new 18,000sf high performance, LEED certified building located at the juncture of a low scale commercial/institutional area with a suburban residential neighborhood. The program includes reading rooms on all three levels, a cybercenter, and community meeting spaces.
The above grade massing and material treatment respond to the very different site conditions on each elevation, while the interior library spaces are open plans with reading rooms on all three levels.
As the building area required is double that allowable by zoning, half of the interior spaces are placed below grade. A double-height space adjacent to the building entry and three strip skylights in the plaza bring light through a contoured ceiling to define more specific reading areas in the reading room below. The profile of the contoured ceiling is read at the double-height space, making a visual connection between the plaza surface and the ceiling surface, accentuating the artificiality of the ground. The landscape strategy takes into account the ground surface’s dual role as an outdoor public space and its inversion as the roof of the cellar below, exploring the relationship between artifice and nature.
A large picture-window along the front elevation provides views into and out of the second floor children’s area, while also satisfying the Library’s desire to provide a civic identity to the community. Other exterior materials, including channel glazing and fiber cement board paneling, merge the scale of the library to Union Turnpike and its residential adjacencies.
Location
Queens, NY
Client
NYC Department of Design and Construction
Year
2013
MFA Design Team
Scott Marble, Karen Fairbanks, Robert Booth, Mallory Shure, Jake Nishimura, Eric Ng, Adam Marcus, Stacey Murphy, Katie Shima, Christopher Kroner, Andrew Colopy, Jane Lea, Darren Zhou, Jennifer Downey, Alexis Coir
MEP Engineers
Plus Group PLLC
Structural Engineer
Buro Happold Consulting Engineers
Geotechnical Engineers
Langan
Lighting Design
Richard Shaver Architectural Lighting
Landscape Architect
SCAPE / Landscape Architecture
Recognition
Design Award of Merit
SARA National
Landscape Architecture Design Merit Award
American Society of Landscape Architects
American Architecture Award
The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design
Design Excellence
Queens Chamber of Commerce
A+ Awards Special Mention
Architizer
Building of the Year
American-Architects
Design Merit Award
AIA New York
Design Award of Honor
SARA/NY
LEED Gold
