First Tour of the New Library Wing!

On January 29, 2010, the new interior is ready to show!  Most of the walls have been studded in, and its much easier to envision how the new wing will look when it's completed. A few of the library staff and I are going to take you on a virtual tour.  We'll start at the front door, then head west through the staff areas, turn north through the Community Room and the Junior Activity Room, before heading back east through the Young Adult Area back to the old library.

Here's some photos to show the new areas:

This photo shows the new front door area.  We're standing in the atrium area looking to the south.  To the right in this picture is where the new check-in area will be.  There will be a big glass wall so that patrons can watch the new sorting equipment process the books and other library materials.

The following photo shows the new atrium:

We've backed up a few steps and are looking south west.  You can see Anette, one of our librarians.  She's standing in front of where the new Library Foundation Book Store will be, by the yellow door that was south of the old west entrance. 

For our next photo, we've turned to the right and walked east into what will be the new staff and processing area.

Here we see Robin, another of our librarians, standing in front of what will be the east wall of the staff area. Behind him will be staff restrooms and the storage closet for the new Community Room.

We've now walked to the east through the hallway that will lead from the staff area into the new Community Room.

Here we've turned around and are facing east.  We see two of our librarians, Anette and Valerie, walking through the hallway.  Behind them, you can see the new staff area, and the wall to the new circulation desk.

Our tour now takes us west again, into the new Community Room.

This photo shows the north west corner of the new Community Room.  The doorway you see will lead to a small kitchenette area.  You can also see how high the raised ceiling will be, letting in lots of light!

Now we turn right once again, and head north through a hallway, past the new public restrooms, and into the new Junior area. 

This photo is looking into the new Junior Activity Room.  We're standing in the northwest corner of the new building, but this photo is actually looking to the south west corner of the Junior Activity Room.  The metal structures you see on the ceiling will house lighting fixtures.

We're almost ready to head back to the older section of the building.  This next photo shows the scope of the new addition:

We've made a 180 degree turn, and are now facing directly east.  The Junior Activity Room is directly behind us.  This view is looking through the Junior and Young Adult areas of the library, past the staff areas (on the right) and back towards the older part of the building.  The sunlight you see on the floor up in the distance is coming in through the clerestory windows of the atrium.

While most of the snow has been removed from the interior of the new construction, a great deal of ice has remained.  The construction crew has worked to get it all broken up and shoveled out, using blowtourches and heaters.

This is a pile of ice chips left behind in the Young Adult Area.

This next photo shows the housing for the lights in the Young Adult Area.

We're looking up, and to the north east (more north than east).  The lights will be quite elaborate, and will hang above and below the ceiling on different levels.  They'll also have the capacity to change colors.

Now we're back to where our tour began.

We've walked through the Young Adult Area, past the new staff and processing areas, and are standing in the atrium once again.  We're looking to the north east.  The yellow double doors you see were the old staff entrance that was to the immediate south of the old book drop.

I hope you've enjoyed your tour of the new addition! As you can see, things are shaping up very nicely.  I'm looking forward to being able to show you continued updates as the interior work progresses.

Putting on the Roof

On January 25th, the construction crew began to put the roof boards on.  They used the big crane to get the boards to the roof.  Here's a few pictures -

Then the crew pulled the boards in place.  It was quite a process to watch!

Here's a photo showing the amount of snow that had fallen in through the atrium into the interior of the new library:

Now with the new roof going up, the crew won't have to fight the snow so much.

Snow!

With all the stormy weather we've been having, its created quite a challenge for the construction crew.  They've had to add some unique tools to their repetoire, such as this snowblower.

They've also used their tools in creative ways, like using the blowtorch to melt the ice that has accumulated on the concrete floor.

Working on the Community Room

These are all photos taken on January 11th showing how fast the progress is going.  The most noticable addition is the new Community Room.  Here's a shot of it from our parking lot looking northwest. The higher section you can see will be the interior tray ceiling.

This is a view looking west onto that new addition. 

If you look closely, you can see the tabernacle behind the new construction.

Here's a few more photos showing how quickly the construction crew is working!  The first shows the completed north wall of the new addition.  Notice the roof struts connecting the wall to the support beams.

These next two show the new atrium space that will be the new front entrance to the library.  Look at the fun curved section! 

The new atrium space will have clerestory windows, so there will be lots of light flooding into the entrance.  It will make a nice change from our dark little hallway that we have now!

Framing in the Walls

Here's a good photo showing the construction crew putting up the wooden frame for the building.

Most of the walls were completed by the first part of January, 2010.