Kirkwood Public Library, Delaware Building, Project Photos, News, USA Design Images

Kirkwood Public Library

Delaware Building in New Castle County, United States of America design by ikon.5 architects

Oct 12, 2009

Kirkwood Public Library Building

Location: New Castle County, Delaware, USA
Date built: 2009
Design: ikon.5 architects

Photos © James D’Addio

• 22,500 square feet
• Community Meeting Room
• Children’s Library
• Young Adults
• Information Technology Center
• Emergency Medical Services Station
• Project Completed: August 2009

Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects – New Jersey Chapter, Oct 2009

Set along a commercial shopping strip highway, Kirkwood Public Library is designed as roadside billboard announcing the public civic function of reading, learning and exploration within. The objective was to create a new branch library for a growing diverse community that would serve as the iconic community center of the neighborhood. Shopping malls and fast food restaurants flank both sides of the site.

Large commercial signs are stacked along the highway where this library is sited and a small scale residential neighborhood is set one block in from the highway site.

It is within this context, that the Kirkwood Public Library appears as a collection of books set on the highway. Facing the highway, the building facade of stacked horizontal cement board siding is fashioned as a series of boxes that represent the edge of books piled up on their side. The result is stark geometric forms that effectively sign the building and its function to the community along this aggressively commercial environment.

Adjacent to the residential neighborhood, a double height canopy cantilevers from the façade like a page of a book, providing shelter to the front door. At the western end of the site, a glazed two story reading room is covered in a cedar solar screen. The screen permits desirable views out while controlling solar gain and day light harvesting. Internally, the program is arranged along the length of the highway to increase visibility and to shelter the entry side from traffic.