Imagining the New Annapolis Public Library
What will the new Annapolis Public Library look like? We’ve just come a step closer to the answer to the third big question about the surprisingly controversial future of the popular flagship of Anne Arundel County’s 15-library system.
The first big answer was that the new library will stand on the spot of its half-century-old predecessor at 1410 West Street.
The second big answer is that the new library will be 32,500 square feet and cost about $24.2 million. That decision was a size up for County Executive Steve Schuh, who wanted 25,500 square feet, and library planners, who had earlier county approval for a major regional library at 48,000 square feet.
Now designers for the all-new building have been announced, and you can get an inkling of what’s to come by looking at their work.
Leading the three-firm team is 33-year-old Wheeler Goodman Masek & Associates, Inc. Projects of the 33-year-old Annapolis architecture and design firm abound in Chesapeake Country, giving us plenty of examples to consider.
Perhaps the new library will have an historic look, like WGMs own home in West Annapolis? This is the firm, after all, that renovated Annapolis City Hall, built Maryland’s James Senate Office Building and reconstructed the Kinder Farm Park tobacco barn.
Probably not. WGM’s portfolio overflows with public buildings in modern design, both conventional, like the 1987 Crofton Post Office, to innovative, like Annmarie Garden’s 2008 Arts Building.
Certainly it will be environmentally friendly, meeting LEED standards, as must all Maryland institutional buildings built with public funds. WGM, a member of the Green Building Council, created Calvert County’s first LEED building for Dominion Cove Point in 2008. In Anne Arundel, WGM designed the LEED Central Utilities Building and Eastern District Police Station in Pasadena.
Supporting Wheeler Goodman Masek will be Louis Cherry Architecture of Raleigh, North Carolina, and Margaret Sullivan Studio of New York City.
Louis Cherry builds his practice on a heady set of beliefs, including environmental responsibility, natural light and creating community. The firm has library experience, with at least three North Carolina libraries to its credit.
Margaret Sullivan Studio then seems to come along to tie the package together, focusing, as it advertises, “on the integration of architecture, interior design, visioning and programming — seeing the design process as a whole.”
“What kind of library do you want it to be,” Sullivan’s studio asks.
That’s the fourth big question.
Thinking starts now. Design will begin next year, with community meetings in spring and summer. The existing library will close for demolition in mid-2017, with the new library to open about three years from now.