More Progress to the Interior

The interior is seeing some exciting additions.  Some of the carpet has arrived and is in the process of being installed. The installation of the ceiling tiles is almost finished.  Its starting to look like a completed building!

These first two photos show the atrium.  The paint and ceiling tiles give it a finished appearance.  The first photo shows the lighting fixtures as well.

This second photo of the atrium area is pointing east.  The unfinished wall you see is where the Library Foundation Book Store will be.  There will be a corridor leading back to the older section of the building.  The older section, after its remodel, will house the Adult collection.

This next series of pictures shows the beginning installation of the carpet in the Junior and Young Adult areas.  Its quite a stretch of ground to cover!

This next photo is of the staff processing area.  The work here is on hold for a few days - the Ph ballance of the concrete is preventing the crew from laying the flooring here.  We'll have a rubber-type floor for utility purposes, and if the Ph ballance is off, it ruins the glue.

Here are some views of our staff break room.  We've had lockers and a coat rack installed.  The second photo shows the lovely cabinetry in the room.

 

These last two photos show the progress on the Community Room.  The ceiling has now been completed.

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.

Pouring the Concrete

In mid-November, work began on the concrete floor for the new building. This process was delayed several times because the weather was too cold for the concrete to set properly.  Here is a picture of the old west side entrance, with the doors removed. You can see how uneven the ground was before the concrete got poured.

Once the ground was leveled out, the prep work began. The concrete was poured on top of the yellow plastic and metal mesh. The box you see in the middle of the following picture is the support for an eventual roof beam.

The concrete got poured through a huge crane arm. If you look closely, you can see the concrete coming out of the bottom of the spout. The construction workers directed the mouth of the arm to the sections of the floor where they needed the concrete to go.


This is a great picture that shows the concrete coming out of the crane arm. It also shows how they smoothed the concrete.

Here the construction workers are smoothing out the floor:

And, voila! The finished floor for the new building! This photo is looking east onto the old west side of the building.