Culture

Champaign Public Library

Champaign, Illinois | Completed 2008
Champaign Public Library 5

This pub­lic library serves the twin cities of Cham­paign and Urbana, which also call the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois home. The old 1970’s mod­ernist, glass and steel library was too small, dif­fi­cult to main­tain, and unpop­u­lar in the com­mu­ni­ty. The crit­i­cal deci­sion to rebuild rather than move to a green grass loca­tion was informed by the goal of spark­ing eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment in Down­town Cham­paign. To pro­vide suf­fi­cient park­ing with­out plac­ing the library in a sea of cars, a new street, Clara Lane, was ded­i­cat­ed to cre­ate a sep­a­rate civic block for the library.

In the most basic and tra­di­tion­al sense, a library is a repos­i­to­ry of writ­ten knowl­edge. The Cham­paign Pub­lic Library took this prag­mat­ic func­tion fur­ther by expand­ing the building’s role to become a cen­ter for the com­mu­ni­ty. The design reflects this aspi­ra­tion through its phys­i­cal arrange­ment and choice of mate­ri­al­i­ty; it is com­fort­able, known, and a place of civic pride.

Upon entry, a mon­u­men­tal 115-foot tall sky­light draws patrons from the lob­by and con­fer­ence cen­ter into the main cir­cu­la­tion and read­ing rooms. The build­ing does not shy from light and in fact uses it as a mate­r­i­al along­side a palette of lime­stone, bam­boo, brick, and glass. The result is a beloved build­ing that will grow with its com­mu­ni­ty and inspire many gen­er­a­tions of stu­dious minds.

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A con­fer­ence cen­ter/­mul­ti-pur­pose facil­i­ty flex­i­bly accom­mo­dates day to day library activities.

A café with indoor and out­door seat­ing is locat­ed adja­cent to cre­ate a dynam­ic gath­er­ing space for the com­mu­ni­ty and the library patrons.

The library uses bam­boo planks as both floor­ing and wall cov­er­ing in lieu of tra­di­tion­al hard­wood. This sus­tain­abil­i­ty for­ward deci­sion is one of many inte­grat­ed fea­tures in the build­ing that had lit­tle to no impact on the build­ing cost. Approx­i­mate­ly 85% of the build­ing floor area is made up of under­floor air dis­tri­b­u­tion system.

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The library pro­gram is orga­nized on two lev­els sep­a­rat­ing the youth and adult ser­vices with admin­is­tra­tion spaces locat­ed on a third floor mezzanine.

A cen­tral​“spine” leads patrons from the entry lob­by through the var­i­ous col­lec­tion spaces cre­at­ing a dra­mat­ic gate­way to library services.

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The library has become the gem of our com­mu­ni­ty! I still enjoy watch­ing peo­ple come into the build­ing and just being thrilled by what they see. They come back again and again.

 Marsha Grove (Client and Former Champaign Library Director)
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Solar Tubes are used through­out the sec­ond floor read­ing room to reduce the use of arti­fi­cial light­ing. This trans­lates into ener­gy sav­ings for both light­ing and mechan­i­cal systems.


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