Plainsboro, New Jersey
Program: A three-level, 46,500-square-foot library including an Internet café, a children's science center, a local arts gallery, offices, terraces, a reading room, and a community room. The building anchors a newly created town center, which blends residential and commercial development along a pedestrian-friendly town green.
Design concept and solution: Conceiving the library as a community hub for Plainsboro's ethnically diverse population, the architects sought to create an indoor equivalent of the town green while offering a contemporary twist on the area's traditional brick and white-trim buildings. A pair of simple, geometric brick wings surrounds a central volume of glass and steel, which houses the entrance and the main reading room. At the entrance a skeletal painted-steel portico and an asymmetrically aligned tower borrow from the civic architecture repertoire without quoting it verbatim. Inside, the BKSK team designed the library as a series of public spaces opening onto one another, beginning outdoors with the town green: patrons can enter, pass through a double-height reading room—itself meant to be an indoor extension of the green—and exit into a rear garden, which functions as a kind of outdoor reading room. A mixture of seating, from low cushions to cocoonlike rattan lounges to upright chairs, caters to a range of cultural sitting styles.
Architect:
BKSK Architects
28 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10010
(212) 807-9600
(212) 807-6405
Location: 9 Van Doren Street Plainsboro, NJ 11368
Completion Date: May 2010
Total construction cost: $12.3 million
PeopleOwner Architect Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit: Interior designer Engineer(s): MEP ENGINEER: CIVIL ENGINEER: Consultant(s) Lighting: Acoustical/AV/IT: Other - Exterior Envelope: Other - Graphics & Wayfinding: Other - Elevator: General contractor: H & S Construction & Mechanical, Inc. Photographer(s): Jeffrey Totaro CAD system, project management, or other software used: Vectorworks |
ProductsExterior cladding Metal/glass curtainwall: EFCO 5600 Series Curtain Wall w/custom snap cap profile & custom three-coat flouropolymer by Valspar w/Guardian SN 68 Tinted/clear glass (pearlescent white) EIFS, ACM, or other: EIFS – Parex Watermaster Commercial VR/DB; aluminum sunshade at stair tower – CS Group (Airfoil Blades) Roofing Windows Glazing Doors Wood doors: Custom wood veneer doors Fire-control doors, security grilles: Roll-up grilles by McKeon Upswinging doors, other: Bilco Roof Hatch Hardware Hinges: Rixson Closers: Sargent Exit devices: McKinney Pulls: McKinney Security devices: 3M Book Security Gates Cabinet hardware: Hafele cab hardware (asstd.); Blumcraft doors Interior finishes Suspension grid: Armstrong Suprafine XL, Silhouette XL, Interlude XL, 360 Grids Cabinetwork and custom woodwork: Combo of laminated; Baltic and Birch ply – custom red oak veneer Paints and stains: ICI at GWB walls Paneling: Plyboo (Smith and Fong) Bamboo pivoting bamboo veneer wall panels with fabric-wrapped homosote on opposite face of panels (Community Room); Fabric-wrapped acoustic panels (History Room) Plastic laminate: Abet Laminati, Formica, Wilson Art (asst’d) Special surfacing: Solid polymer cone on aluminum frame (“Cone of Silence” at Children’s Level) Floor and wall tile: Daltile “Rittenhouse Square” white w/”Festiva” – spa blue, marine, sea mist (bathroom walls); Daltile Lanka grey 1x1 tile (bathroom floors) Resilient flooring: Forbo Marmoleum (flooring in all service areas) Carpet: Shaw Contract Group – “A Walk in the Garden” Collection with Blades pattern and custom colors Raised flooring: Plyboo (Smith and Fong) Bamboo flooring in Community Room; Stone – 12”x24” “Fieldstone” for Main Entry floor Dry Stack Pennsylvania Fieldstone Wall on CMU backup; Arriscraft Calcium Silicate units on Grid Worx aluminum grid system on CMU backup Furnishings Reception furniture: Custom millwork with white oak veneer and 3Form resin panels Chairs: Knoll “Jens Risom Side Chair” for Reading Table chairs; Knoll Bertoia Diamond Chair Tables: Knoll “Crinion Open Table” for Reading Room tables Upholstery: banquettes upholstered with Maharam “Repeat” fabric by Dutch industrial designer Hella Jonerius Other furniture: Lounge Seats: Water hyacinth chairs by Project Import Export (P.I.E.) “Tonecoon” and “Sushi Daybed Pe” Lighting Downlights: Edison Price Task lighting: Translite Sonoma USLA4 (Reading table lights); Translite Sonoma (Stair tread lights) Exterior: Belfer (exterior canopy); Selfux (exterior canopy) Conveyance Plumbing |
