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Library at dusk with a lit upper reading room and Queens Library signage at the entrance
Reading room with bookshelves and an open stair
Open stair with glass railings above lower-level bookshelves
Lower-level reading area with green armchairs, bookshelves, and a skylight above
Reading room with a service desk, study tables, and long bookshelves
Teen area with green chairs and study tables beside windows to an outdoor deck
Study tables and lounge seating along a glass wall facing a planted terrace
Children's area with tables and a hanging LED sign, beside large windows
Corner entrance with SEARCH spelled across the upper glass and visitors outside
Grid of twelve views of the library facade showing the word SEARCH in changing light
Aisle of bookshelves leading to a stair below a curved glass balcony
Strip skylights over bookshelves, with silhouettes of people on the plaza above
Front elevation of the library with SEARCH across the upper facade
Detail of channel glass cladding meeting the curved glass ground floor at sunset
Curved glass wall along the plaza, with wood benches and planting beside neighboring houses
Library with a channel glass facade above a glass ground floor, behind a planted plaza
Rendered section through the library showing reading rooms on three levels and the stair
Rendered section showing plaza skylights bringing daylight to the reading room below

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.

Library at dusk with a lit upper reading room and Queens Library signage at the entrance
Reading room with bookshelves and an open stair
Open stair with glass railings above lower-level bookshelves
Lower-level reading area with green armchairs, bookshelves, and a skylight above
Reading room with a service desk, study tables, and long bookshelves
Teen area with green chairs and study tables beside windows to an outdoor deck
Study tables and lounge seating along a glass wall facing a planted terrace
Children's area with tables and a hanging LED sign, beside large windows
Corner entrance with SEARCH spelled across the upper glass and visitors outside
Grid of twelve views of the library facade showing the word SEARCH in changing light
Aisle of bookshelves leading to a stair below a curved glass balcony
Strip skylights over bookshelves, with silhouettes of people on the plaza above
Front elevation of the library with SEARCH across the upper facade
Detail of channel glass cladding meeting the curved glass ground floor at sunset
Curved glass wall along the plaza, with wood benches and planting beside neighboring houses
Library with a channel glass facade above a glass ground floor, behind a planted plaza
Rendered section through the library showing reading rooms on three levels and the stair
Rendered section showing plaza skylights bringing daylight to the reading room below
close buttom

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

General Contractor

Summit Construction Service Group, Inc.

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

Process
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