What should a 21st century library look like?
To ask that question is to conjure futuristic visions — of libraries that resemble sleek Apple stores; of librarians who stroll around their branches with computer tablets, and of robots that stack books in shelves, provided, of course, there still are books.
Such issues are no longer academic, not with a new library commissioner heading to Chicago, especially one from digitally-savvy San Francisco.
The debut of new library commissioner Brian Bannon, who is expected to start this month, gives Chicago a chance to think afresh about its libraries — and how good design can uplift the experience of the millions of people who use them.
Bannon, it turns out, is no stranger to architecture. Before he became chief information officer for the San Francisco Public Library, he was the system’s chief of branches. In that role, he managed a $200 million Branch Library Improvement Program that has so far renovated 16 libraries and built six new ones. The upgrades sparked increases in visits and checked-out materials.
Many of the libraries won LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, which suggests that Bannon should have no trouble adapting to Chicago’s emphasis on energy-saving green design. He also appears in sync with Chicago’s philosophy of turning libraries from imposing temples of reading into vibrant community anchors.
“At the core, it’s about connecting people with information of value to them,” Bannon said in January when Mayor Rahm Emanuel nominated him to replace longtime library commissioner Mary Dempsey after the two battled over the mayor’s plan to cut library branch hours and staff.
Yet there’s a crucial difference between the Chicago and San Francisco approaches: New libraries in the City by the Bay are custom-designed for their sites. Not so in Chicago, where libraries, police stations, firehouses, park field houses and most public schools follow “prototype” designs that replicate floor plans and facades all over the city with only slight variations.
Since 1997, the Public Building Commission of Chicago, which constructs buildings for Chicago Public Library and other city agencies, has built 22 prototype libraries, according to a commission spokeswoman.
I’ve never been a fan of the prototype approach, which tends to produce bland, cookie-cutter buildings more suited to suburban commercial strips than a city renowned for great architecture. But prototype proponents argue that there are advantages to standardization: Reduced spending on design and construction costs, easier maintenance because the buildings have the same interior features, and equal facilities citywide.
Besides, some prototypes are better than others, as a look at the latest generation of Chicago public libraries reveals.
The buildings — the $4.4 million Greater Grand Crossing Branch Library at 1000 E. 73rd St. and the $6.4 million Richard M. Daley Branch Library at 733 N. Kedzie Ave. — are architectural siblings designed to fit on sites of different sizes. At more than 16,000 square feet, the Daley library is nearly twice the size of its Grand Crossing counterpart. Both are single-floor buildings, in contrast to a two-story prototype library expected to get under way shortly at 6000 N. Broadway in Edgewater, with completion due next year.
The Chicago architectural firm of Lohan Anderson, led by Dirk Lohan, designed the prototypes after the Public Building Commission asked for new library designs that would incorporate the latest technology and energy-saving features.
If nothing else, the two finished libraries represent a great leap forward from one of the earliest prototype libraries, the bunkerlike Near North branch at 310 W. Division St. That building and its nearly windowless walls, which looked as though they were designed to ward off gang-bangers from the now-demolished Cabrini-Green public housing project, ignored one of the fundamental precepts of civic design: A public building should uplift the public realm.
Lohan and two leaders of his firm, Basil Souder and Michael Barnes, gave the Greater Grand Crossing branch a more noble presence with a tall, deeply recessed main entrance emphasized by a single, slender column and a sleek overhanging roof. Horizontal bands of windows and decorative brickwork complement this vertical gesture, ensuring that the library fits comfortably alongside its bungalow neighbors.
The solid exterior sets up a welcome surprise inside — a tall reading room that’s flooded with natural light. Concrete roof panels that span the room make possible its pleasing clean lines.
While one can quibble with the nostalgic Louis Sullivan-style wall stenciling, the room is cleverly designed. There are enough shelves on the walls to provide needed storage space, yet there are enough windows to bring in natural light. The circulation desk has good sightlines, allowing librarians to easily keep watch. Technical features, like computer plug-ins that pop out of the tops of reading tables, are up to date. Under-floor wiring will allow more computers to be installed some day.
“Realistically, not every Chicagoan has their own computer to bring to the library. We have to have computers available,” said Erin Lavin Cabonargi, the building commission’s executive director.
In the smartly designed foyer, letters inscribed in a terrazzo floor implore visitors to read, learn and discover. Just off the foyer, a small community room makes good on the idea of the library as a community anchor. Some Chicago cops were meeting there when I visited. Then a man walked into the foyer.
“Incredible,” he said, looking at the terrazzo floors. “I just like the feel of it.”
The Daley branch, in the Humboldt Park community area, is a larger, but less successful, variation on the same theme.
Here, the big reading room and its bands of windows aren’t flush to the street, as they are in Grand Crossing. They’re set well back, popping up from the middle of the roof. That move makes functional sense because the reading room occupies the middle of the main floor. Yet it gives the building a low-slung presence, one that lacks the necessary oomph to stand up to a commercial street like Kedzie.
Ironically, the library’s most powerfully scaled facade, in which a glass wall reveals the presence of the big reading room, faces toward an adjoining alley. It’s a classic case of a prototype being ill-suited to its site.
Inside, the reading room is pleasant enough and appears to function well, but it’s fussy due to the presence of ceiling trusses and interior columns that were needed to accommodate the building’s longer spans.
In short, the design isn’t bad, but it’s not as architecturally effective as the one in Grand Crossing.
Bannon has visited the Daley branch and is said to have appreciated elements it shares with the Grand Crossing branch: its light-filled reading room, the sight lines from its circulation desk and its green features. But officials don’t know whether he wants to accept the new library prototypes, tweak them or junk them.
“I have not met the commissioner, but I would imagine that he would want his own experience embodied in the new prototype,” Cabonargi said.
Given how much political momentum has built up in favor of the prototypes, it’s probably a fantasy to think that Bannon would return Chicago to custom-designed libraries. Indeed, after Emanuel’s controversial cuts in staff and operating hours, the big issue isn’t design — it’s restoring services.
Some will argue that library officials would be better off spending their limited funds on people to staff their branches rather than bricks and mortar. Yet as the economy recovers and new branches are needed, Chicago has at least one promising model to build on as it envisions the future of the 21st century library.
