Site Plan Charrette & Design

sketch I did of the front of the library, rendered in photoshop

Sketch of the back of the library, rendered in photoshop

Current Site Plan, we took our square footage from 15,000 sq. feet  to approximately between 10,000 and 12,000.  The curved right side would have a glass curtain wall and that would be where the stacks are located.  The left side is our "solid" side and it has office space, a meeting room, and some utility space.  

We hashed out a lot of ideas today during class and collectively decided to move forward with the design that Sara and Maiken's group had proposed but obviously tweaking it a little.  The main concept we took from their design was having a central circulation area with two wings that would branch off from that central atrium.  We also played with ceiling heights and areas jutting out of the building.  We want to have parking in the back as well as a green space dividing the parking and the library itself.  

A sketch I did based on the site design charrette.  

Vance Chavis Library - Building Design Charette / Advisory Meeting 10/15/10

Yesterday, we attended the Chavis library advisory meeting where members of the community and people who are connected to the library attended and we were able to present some of our ideas, as well as, get their feedback.  Here are a few of the things they communicated to us through discussion and through a hands-on exercise we did with the people who attended...

Today, we decided what our concept statement would be for designing the library.  The studio, as a whole, would have a unified concept which is,
"The re-design of the Vance Chavis site, building, and interiors will reinforce and strengthen the library's commitment to life-long learning, to community enrichment, and to environmental and social sustainability."

Vance Chavis Library - Site Design Charrette 10/08/10

Overlapping rectangular buildings with a courtyard within the interior of the building and have parking on west side.
Entrance on North East Corner.

square shaped plan with parking on the west side of the building.
Entrance on the North East Corner

As a class we did a design charrette during class on friday october 8th.  My group came up with three ideas for building shape and orientation on the land available to the library.  An L-shaped library, a square library, and then 2 overlapping rectangles.  My group thought the entrance would be best on the North East corner of the building because of the main roads that would trickle into Lee street from that direction and it would keep the entrance on the corner of benbow and lee street.

Current site design diagram  based on what was brought to the table during our design charette.

  As a class we decided on a more "urban" type design, specifically for the parking.  The parking would be behind the building so that the library would be right up against the sidewalk and the street.  Wanted to keep the square footage around 15,000 feet because that is the average size of the libraries that have already been remodeled in Greensboro.  

Assignment 3.0 - Precedent Studies

My precedent studies were on two separate libraries.  The first was a library in the Greensboro library branches, the Kathleen-Clay Edwards Library located off of New Garden Rd. in Greensboro, NC.  The other was the Viipuri library in Russia that was originally designed by Alvar Alto.  Without realizing it, the two libraries turned out to be similar to one another.  Both were built within parks, emphasized light and had specific areas for children.  The first 3 images are from the Viipuri library, floorplans, a sunlight diagram I created from the information I found on the libraries skylight's.  I also created an image diagramming the figure/ground adjacencies, along with the vehicular and pedestrian circulation around  both libraries.  I also took photographs of the Greensboro library and included the ones I thought my helpful to record for my precedent.  2 floorplans of the Kathleen Clay Library and another diagram which lists to features of both libraries.

Assignment 4.0 Site Analysis

The first project we had to begin our designing of the Vance Chavis Library was a Site Analysis. As a group we were asked to study the solar orientation, vehicular/pedestrian circulation,historical context of the Library, as well as, the figure ground,scale/massing. I focused on the Solar Orientation and the scale and orientation of the spaces that are currently in use in the library.  The first 2 images are what I created based on my studies of the building's solar orientation.  The third and fourth images are the final boards my group presented.  The last image is the diagram I created based on the spacial adjacencies that are in the current building in which the library is housed.  The main thing I took away from this assignment is how important light is in a building and how poor the quality of natural light the current building is getting.  Also, I realized how blocked off all the spaces in the current building are.  There needs to be an open floor plan that allows for free flowing spaces.