FAYETTEVILLE -- The city library expansion has taken shape, and members of the public got a chance to give their feedback Monday.
The design team of Minneapolis-based Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle presented proposed entrances, floor layouts and how the expansion would connect with the current building.
The library will undergo an 80,000-square-foot, $49 million expansion, scheduled to be finished in 2020. Voters approved a millage increase last year to pay for its construction.
From an aerial view, the expansion will extend south down the sloped terrain, forming a type of U-shaped pattern with a courtyard in the middle. The expansion will have underground parking and two levels.
The first level of the expansion will have a multipurpose room, "makerspace" and a children's area. The multipurpose room will feature movable furniture and will be designed to host a variety of events. A makerspace serves as an area for people to collaborate on projects with the computers and equipment they need. The children's area will go up to the second level.
A park could go onto unused land to the south. The library bought 4 acres next to the current building for $2 million earlier this year after a lengthy court battle involving heirs of the family who used to own the land and Washington Regional Medical Center, which sold to the library.
The slope of the ground makes it so the bottom level of the existing parking deck meets up with the second level of the expansion. The library as patrons know it now will become levels three and four of the building.
Collections might be reconfigured to improve the flow between the expansion and the existing building, but nothing substantial will change about the current building, said Susan Morgan, project architect.
"All of that is in development right now, but the spaces you know and love are going to remain the spaces you know and love," she said.
Executive Director David Johnson said the layout fits the topography of the land and will make many of the library's sustainability goals possible.
Metro on 12/12/2017