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Date: 10/17/2023
SHUTESBURY — Responding to budget challenges to the new library, Oudens Ello Architects slimmed down the project footprint, reduced the height, moved it closer to North Leverett Road and cut $3.5 million from the estimated costs.
The second design preserves the functionality of the building, without the sprinklers.
“The best way to save money was to reduce the size of the building…below 5,000 square feet,” said Matt Oudens, principal architect on the project. Oudens explained that reducing the building by about a thousand square feet eliminated the building code requirements for sprinklers, which a larger structure must have. “That alone saved about $2 million.”
The new design also reduced the overall footprint of the project by shortening the driveway coming in from North Leverett Road. An unnamed caller to the Zoom meeting asked if any thought was given to road noise or the trucks at the public works facility across the street. Oudens replied that the library was still over 200 feet from the road.
“Compared to most of our projects, this is about as good as it gets for road noise,” Oudens said.
A smaller building suggested a smaller parking lot. Parking for 12 to 14 vehicles should be plenty, since 15 spaces often suffice at much larger libraries, Oudens said. A benefit of a smaller lot is less pavement, a hardscape that complicates water drainage control efforts. Gravel aprons along the driveway may serve as added parking.
The entranceway of the building was simplified to save space. Much of the reduction in square footage, Oudens said, was achieved by reducing the overhangs on the exterior, which contribute to the calculation of the overall square footage. Renderings show the overhangs added some elegance, but the new gabled roof design allows for shorter walls and less glazed glass, which is expensive. The interior service areas are comparable.
“We’ve spent a couple of months trying to figure out how to recalibrate this project,” Oudens said. The initial layout remained. “The entrance is from the east side, from the parking lot into the lobby that allows access to the meeting room to the left, browsing area and circulation area to the right.”
The meeting room will seat 50 people, with a maximum capacity of 67. The lobby and circulation area lost square footage. A bathroom was lost in the downsizing, the main bathrooms remaining across from the circulation desk. The various service areas also remain from the initial design, along with the equipment bay over the central entryway.
The east side of the building is still occupied by the smaller rooms, a storage room, electrical closet, director’s office, teen room, reading nook and a study. The larger rooms, the meeting room, lobby and circulation, adult and children’s areas, will still overlook the grassy field to the west.
Sliding glass pocket doors will provide sound control for the meeting room and children’s room. In the first design the adult and children’s rooms were side by side, but are now separated by a study and joined by a more open floor plan.
A computer area was also lost in the redesign; but the most noticeable changes were to the exterior of the building. In the first design, at the east end of the proposed building was an area covered by the roof. At the western end was a covered porch, suitable for outdoor activities. A porch was also lost when the entryway was simplified.
A caller asked if a covered pavilion was an option for an outdoor space.
“Yes,” Oudens said. “There’s nothing about this project that precludes you from building a separate covered outdoor structure.”
The new library remains a net zero building, with a solar array planned for the roof and floor to ceiling windows letting in daylight on the north side. The architectural renderings showed glue laminated wood supporting ribs inside and an exterior combination of blue slate and wood shingle siding.
The schematic design and design/development phases of preparation will continue until October 2024. Comments about and suggestions for the design are still being accepted. The Library Building Committee can be reached at LibBuild@shutesbury.org.
“We’ve made a lot of decisions that were done with the spirit of not compromising the functionality of the library, but delivering a project that would be on budget and that works for the town,” Oudens said.