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Ballard Library

Beacon Hill Library

(Photo by Carlson Architects.)

Facts

Design Commission's Influence
The Design Commission believed the development of the Beacon Hill Library provided the City an opportunity to develop an important civic landmark at a neighborhood scale that would anchor an area about to be transformed by light rail.

The Design Commission made several recommendations to the Seattle Public Library and its design team:

Overall Concept and Direction

• develop the design with pedestrian access and safety in mind

Pedestrian crossing from neighborhood. (Photo by Kadie Bell.)

Urban Design and Neighborhood Fit

• resolve the library's integration with the street character, sidewalks and view corridors of the adjacent residential neighborhoods
• respect the neighborhood streetscape patterns and street view corridors
• ensure that the library, when approached from the west, provides an appropriate threshold between the residential area and the library
• review Sound Transit's proposals and research for their nearby light rail station
• propose an absolute minimum number of parking spaces and seek a variance from the City's parking requirements to encourage library patrons to take alternative transportation, like Metro and Sound Transit, whose planned station is within walking distance

Sidewalk and views lead to the adjoining neighborhood. (Photo by Kadie Bell.)

Site Planning

• consider the brick wall of the adjacent building an important part of the real courtyard landscape
• reduce the building footprint and surface parking area, perhaps putting the parking underground, to further develop the sustainability of the design
• preserve the pattern of greenspace along the street edge
• design the plaza, sidewalks and curb cuts to guide pedestrians safely across Beacon Avenue South and South Forest Streets
• maintain a continuous sidewalk and setbacks to fit the neighborhood context
• examine the effect of the proposed building edges and sidewalks on existing trees and their roots

Library interior. (Photo by Seattle Public Library.)

Design Refinements

• further study the roof runoff capture and treatment system
• develop the massing and design of the corner entry at Beacon Avenue South and South Forest Streets be of a significant and appropriate civic scale
• increase the visual significance of the building in order to anchor the street corner
• restrain the design of the building so it does not detract from the light and playful roof forms
• keep the interior design of the library, as it reinforces the structural vocabulary of the building
• keep the simplicity in the design of the column supporting the entry awning and art sculpture
• keep the roof design, as it affords a lot of opportunity for natural light
• keep the kinetic art components

Library entry. (Photo by Kadie Bell.)