Facilities Planning - 2007 (the Durrant Group)
Purpose
In 2007, the Foundation contracted with the architectural firm, the Durrant Group (Dubuque, Iowa) to turn the 2002 Needs Assessment into a Facilities Plan and to launch a Capital Campaign for private fundraising. Many alternatives were evaluated and the library board settled on building a new facility on the existing site.
The Facilities Plan is a description in words and numbers of the requirements for a library building. It establishes the aspects of each area in a library facility that will require space and which parts of the library will generally want to be next to others (for instance, the children's programming room generally needs to be near the restrooms, but not near the quiet reading areas). Such examples include but are not limited to:
The Facilities Plan was created with the input of the community, library foundation, library board of trustees, and library staff through several meetings and forums. Topics that members of the community proposed included consideration of how many levels a library should have, how visible it should be in the community, number and sizes of meeting rooms, types of seating, and general aesthetics.
In addition, the library foundation (with board of trustee representatives) visited nearby libraries which had been recently built to evaluate current trends in library building construction. An overview of the project and new facility prepared by the Durrant Group can be accessed here (pdf).
Result
The result of the Facilities Plan is the document, itself, which guides the library through the process of evaluating the existing site, architectural design, and construction. The original 2010 architectural plans called for razing the present library. Unfortunately, in 2012, the Durrant Group, the library's architects, quietly ceased operations, another victim of the Great Recession.
In 2007, the Foundation contracted with the architectural firm, the Durrant Group (Dubuque, Iowa) to turn the 2002 Needs Assessment into a Facilities Plan and to launch a Capital Campaign for private fundraising. Many alternatives were evaluated and the library board settled on building a new facility on the existing site.
The Facilities Plan is a description in words and numbers of the requirements for a library building. It establishes the aspects of each area in a library facility that will require space and which parts of the library will generally want to be next to others (for instance, the children's programming room generally needs to be near the restrooms, but not near the quiet reading areas). Such examples include but are not limited to:
- How many shelving sections will need to be included in the youth area.
- How much area should be dedicated for a mop sink in a custodial closet
- How much desk space is needed for a circulation desk area
The Facilities Plan was created with the input of the community, library foundation, library board of trustees, and library staff through several meetings and forums. Topics that members of the community proposed included consideration of how many levels a library should have, how visible it should be in the community, number and sizes of meeting rooms, types of seating, and general aesthetics.
In addition, the library foundation (with board of trustee representatives) visited nearby libraries which had been recently built to evaluate current trends in library building construction. An overview of the project and new facility prepared by the Durrant Group can be accessed here (pdf).
Result
The result of the Facilities Plan is the document, itself, which guides the library through the process of evaluating the existing site, architectural design, and construction. The original 2010 architectural plans called for razing the present library. Unfortunately, in 2012, the Durrant Group, the library's architects, quietly ceased operations, another victim of the Great Recession.