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Date: 7/13/2022
AMHERST – Library Director Sharon Sharry presented an updated schematic design for the $36.3 million Jones Library addition and renovation project at a community forum on July 6. Sharry highlighted accessible walkways around the building to all the entrances, additional spaces annexed to the existing building and existing spaces expanded.
The front entrance on Amity Street is on the first floor while the rear will have a remodeled entrance from the CVS parking lot which leads into the ground-level floor, beneath the main entrance.
“The plan is to have lots of seating back here so people can sit outside and enjoy the nature,” Sharry said. “This is basically the CVS lot entrance which is on a different grade from the Amity [Street] entrance. This will bring you into the garden level, the ground floor of the library and this new entrance here will be very open and light and inviting and completely handicapped accessible.”
Many of the rooms on the ground level will be open after hours. An expanded Woodbury room can accommodate 200 people, and the Amherst Room is available to be reserved after hours. The bulk of the floor is dedicated to special collections including a reading room, a work room for staff to process incoming collections, a spot for the Civil War Tablets and a special collections exhibit space.
Moving up, the first floor includes book services where people will return books, a new teen room, part of the nonfiction collection, and some group study rooms. The children’s room is located in the same place as today and will have the entire west wing and part of the original 1928 building in the front portion.
“Our nonfiction collection is so large that we had to split it into two different floors, but the nonfiction collection really lends itself to that, it can be separated by subject,” Sharry said. “If you don’t find what you’re looking for here, there’s a set of existing stairs to go to the second floor to see the rest of the collection or they can come around to that central staircase or that central elevator.”
The second floor is dedicated to quiet adult reading spaces, more study rooms, two classrooms and four English as a second language (ESL) tutor rooms. This floor also features the rest of the nonfiction collection and the reference desk.
“It’s nice that people who are learning to speak English, when they come up through the main staircase or the main elevator, they just walk down that hallway and there’s ESL,” Sharry said.
Finally, the third and top floor includes the Goodwin Room, a board room which is available to the public thanks to the expanded space dedicated to the library’s special collections. This floor also has the staff lounge.
Sharry explained that they removed a distrustful elevator which permitted expansions to the special collections storage room, the automated materials handling system space and an office.
“It’s interesting to see how much space getting rid of that one elevator has opened up so many of those communal spaces,” Executive Assistant to the Town Manager Angela Mills said, “It’s a great thing, it’s a really great thing.”
“As far as next steps, this set of schematics and the full packet is what you can see on the library’s website right now, that is going out to two different cost estimators so we will be able to get an updated cost estimate,” Sharry said. “The beginning of August is when we’ll start design and development and that’s when things will get more serious. More engineers will start to get involved, walls will be fixed and eventually, furnishings will be decided so we’ll definitely be looking for more public input when it comes to finishes whether exterior or interior.”
The project is projected to remain in the design phase for another year, with a targeted completion date of July 2025. More information and feedback forms can be found online at https://www.joneslibrary.org/352/Jones-Building-Project.