Glen Oaks Library. Massing and Opening

Glen Oaks Branch Library is an 18,000sf LEED Gold certified building located at the juncture of a commercial area and a residential neighborhood. The building doubles the area of the previous building, providing reading rooms and collections on three floors, community rooms, and computers and digital technologies integrated throughout. A landscaped plaza and exterior reading garden provide seating for the community outside the building. To relate the building to the scale of the residential community and meet zoning requirements, half of the interior spaces are placed below grade. Natural light illuminates that lower level through a two-story atrium and strip skylights in the plaza above. Above grade massing and materials respond to the differing site conditions. The channel glass façade provides a luminous glow in the interiors and transforms the building into a beacon for the neighborhood. A large picture window allows for views into and out of the second floor children’s area while providing a civic identity to the community. On bright days, the word “search” appears on the north façade, moving across the surface as the sun moves across the sky. The graphic pattern on the glass curtain wall at the street level includes the word “search” translated into many of the languages spoken in Glen Oaks.