Grants Transform Underutilized Spaces in Libraries

SAN JOSE—The planning and design is complete for three Northern California libraries, San Jose’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, Monterey County’s Pajaro Branch Library and Mendocino County’s Willits Library. Each of the libraries is a recipient of a $10,000 Maximizing Learning Spaces/MLS Grant.

The MLS Grant Project helps underfunded public libraries transform underutilized spaces, maximizing the potential for reading, literacy and learning. The 2020 grant enabled 20 libraries to apply for and fund one underutilized interior space per library, either via a professional design or for furniture. These evaluations, furnishings and redesigns maximize the effectiveness of a space. Despite this year’s pandemic challenges, virtual planning and design allowed MLS projects to move forward.

Project funding during the last three years comes from the US Institute of Museum and Library Services. Funds are disseminated through a partnership between the California State Library and the Southern California Library Collaborative as a statewide initiative.

“The core of the MLS project is heartwarming; filling a gap in communities unable to fully fund their libraries’ needed renovations,” said Christian Theyer, Southern California Library Cooperative’s project manager. “Libraries are spaces where people go to learn and connect. This project helps libraries more fully realize the potential of their spaces and better serve their communities. You can really see this represented in the project results. It is worth it.”

Earlier this year, Anderson Brulé Architects was hand-selected to work with these three libraries, and is now in its second year of MLS Grant design work, with intentions to continue serving library clients and communities in years to come. Anderson Brulé Architects used digital technology for space mapping, tours, client collaboration and design. The firm’s lead designer on the MLS project is associate Amy Crawford, with assistance from interior designers Rachel Quach on Pajaro and Tori Dang on MLK.

“We are here to listen, interpret and provide flexible interior spaces that help libraries better serve their communities,” said Crawford. “It’s amazing to see how profound an impact these space reconfiguration and design projects can have on a library. It’s such rewarding work. These grants have been a silver lining in difficult times for the recipient libraries. Once the renovation is fully executed and complete, they will have highly functional and beautiful new spaces to welcome the community back when they reopen. Our goal is to take something outdated that no longer works well in a modern library and replace it with something that works better. We want to create designs that incorporate creativity, where appropriate, as well as practicality, and provide the flexibility to accommodate different types of programs and groups throughout the day.”

2020 MLS Grant Projects

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library California Room is jointly used by the San Jose Public Library System and San Jose State University. Anderson Brulé Architects originally designed the space when the library was built in 2003. The team refreshed the space and created a more flexible design that meets the modern needs of the California Room. By relocating shelving and making other key functionality changes, Anderson Brulé Architects created a more flexible open space, allowing the research-based room to fulfill its intended purpose and staff to easily reconfigure the space for programs.

Anderson Brulé Architects space planned, and chose furniture and materials for the Pajaro Branch Library–Monterey County Free Libraries. The library is housed in the Porter-Vailejo Mansion, a large 1874 Gothic Revival residence listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and houses other services vital to the Pajaro community such as a daycare. The library itself comprises only two rooms within the house and Anderson Brulé Architects was able to entirely redesign the library using colors inspired by book cover imagery and other artists. The building features original woodwork, staircase and crown moldings. Thanks to the redesign, the library’s operating hours could be altered to better align with the building’s other services.

The design objective for Willits Library–Mendocino County Library was to take an outdated open plan library and create more comfortable small-scale spaces tailored to user groups, which resulted in more acoustic privacy. The goal was to rework the library floorplan using existing shelving, furniture and materials as much as possible to take advantage of newly purchased furniture and keep future costs lower. Anderson Brulé Architects proposed pulling shelving away from walls to help divide space and addressed the needs of the career center by proposing acoustically private meeting pods. The existing large service desk was kept and repurposed as a tech hub at a lower cost than demolition.

Anderson Brulé Architects has designed seven out of the eight MLS 2019 and 2020 grant projects in Northern California. Last year’s projects include Sacramento Public Library/Martin Luther King Jr. Library, Sonoma County Library/Windsor Regional Library, South San Francisco Public Library and Yolo County Library/Clarksburg Branch Library.

“We were able to create a safer place for the littlest among us to play, explore and learn in a secluded but still flexible play area, while the size of the furniture, its mobility and its quality allowed adults to stay longer comfortably, interact with their young ones and other adults, and allowed kids to stay and play longer and safely. We couldn’t be happier,” said Ray Stanley of the Sacramento Public Library.