District 3 New Branch Library
The New District 3 Branch Library will be the catalyst and the model for new development within the 26-acre area formerly occupied by the Mission Drive-In Theater which will encourage a new wave of improvements and development along the newly formed Roosevelt Avenue Corridor district.
The site is just north of the historic Mission San Jose and less than one block west of Mission County Park and the Historic Mission Reach of the San Antonio Riverwalk. The New Library will occupy a four acre tract of land and fronts on Roosevelt just to the south of the Marquee Structure for the old Drive-In. Access to the Library will come off Roosevelt onto a new Loop drive that will cut through the 26 acre parcel allowing access to future buildings on the site. From the Loop Road visitors will turn south into a parking area that sits between Roosevelt and the new Library. The parking area is screened from the street by a rock over CMU site wall. The Library itself is a single story building composed of a 30 foot tall reading room with a shed roof that is covered with barrel vaulted clay tiles.
Visitors enter the new Library in rock veneer clad volume through a pair of over-sized carved wood doors that lead into an L-shaped lobby. The lobby is capped with a series of three domed brick bovedas. The interior brick domes are mirrored on the exterior roof of the Lobby volume with stucco clad light gauge metal framed domes each with a skylight penetrating down to the brick bovedas and illuminating the lobby space. Glass display vitrines line the walls and the floor is covered in patterned cement encaustic tile locally known as Mission Tile.
Off the Lobby are a series of lower height volumes that contain the service spaces for the building. The northwest corner volume houses the restrooms and coffee bar which can be accessed from the Lobby space. In the next volume, two 1,000 SF multi-purpose rooms are accessed off the east side lobby. These rooms are divisible with an acoustically-rated operable partition or can be opened into one large single space. Each has a storage room for movable chairs and a door leading out to the north courtyard garden. The north courtyard garden is enclosed by a 10-foot high white stucco on CMU wall that is fitted with eight 8'x8' pivoting wood panels that allow the courtyard to be opened to the rest of the development or secured for use by the library.
On the west end of the building the last low volume contains the technical services area of the Library. This area is accessed from within the Lobby, directly behind the circulation desk that projects from the west wall of the Main Reading Room or from a service entrance at the southwest corner of the building. The heart of this area is an open office space with work stations that can be reconfigured if required for flexibility. To the north of this space is a server room, an electrical closet, a storage closet, and a book drop room that can accommodate an electronic sorter. To the south of the open office space is a hall to the service entrance, a janitor's closet, a staff toilet with a shower and lockers, and the head librarian's office which has a large window into the main reading room. At the southwest corner are the main mechanical room and a break room with direct access to the south courtyard garden.
From the Lobby visitors will enter the main Library reading room through a pair of wood and glass panel doors that can secure the Library from the public spaces described in the paragraph above. The Library reading room is a 120'x70' rectangular space with a sloping ceiling that rises to over 25 feet tall at the south wall to mirror the clay tile shed roof that covers the space. The space, which will be carpeted, opens to a wall of wood and glass windows along the south wall that look out to the south courtyard garden and Mission San Jose beyond. The windows are punctuated by full height rock fins that support the deep roof overhang which shade the south facing glass. A Children's Area and a Teen Area within the reading room are defined by demountable retail fixtures that can be reconfigured as necessary. Along the north wall of the reading room is access to the multi-purpose rooms and to two 250 SF rooms that can serve as quiet rooms or group study rooms. These rooms are defined by glass walls to the north and south so that allow views from the main reading room out to the north courtyard garden. The east wall of the main reading room, which is relatively unadorned except for a series of five slit windows, anticipates future expansion of the stacks and reading room to the east.
The exterior of the building features a two and a half foot rock wainscot that wraps the entire perimeter with white stucco rising above it. The white stucco is punctuated with a series of strategically place wood windows.
The New District Three Library is being designed and built to LEED Silver Certification standards. All efforts are being made to insure that the Library is a good steward of the environment and that is sets an example for future development in the area.
