Direction Gained in Library Event
      ~ Architects leave town with idea how to p roceed in remodeling
By: Michelle Haberer- 06/07/2005

     Library designs created with public effort are now in budget making stages.
     The Washington Public Library Foundation and three architects from OPN Architects of Cedar rapids spent three days, last week, receiving comments from the public, developing sketches, taking further comments, redrawing and getting more feedback.
     There is fine-tuning to be competed on the designs, said library director Patrick Finney, but all of the major sections have been assigned a location, and they have a general idea of how the library's facade will appear.

      Finney said he was thrilled with the process, the response form the community and the work of the architects.
     "It all exceeded expectations," said Finney. "It gave us a lot of encouragement."
     Well over 100 community members stopped in on the charrette in the building site, observed the process and made comments, said Finney. Many came back to see the progress that had been made.
     Charrette organizers covered the walls with public comments, posting the suggestions visitors made on the wall. There was a lot of interest in creating an area in which to highlight local artists, said Finney, which would be more accessible and open the the current gallery/meeting room on the library's second floor.
     The Washington Genealogy Society will find space in the library's basement, said Finney, and the Historical Society might also move an archive and workroom into the lower level of the facility. Kirkwood Community College has expressed an interest in a community classroom in the lower level, as well, he said.
     Charrette attendees also wished to have a coffee corner in the library. Not wishing to infringe on businesses, said Finney, the plans include a small coffee kiosk in the front of the new library near the "casual lounge" where library patrons can view the square, sit and visit, and enjoy the paper and a cup of coffee. The library would contract with the Coffee Corner to have thermoses of coffee delivered to the library, said Finney, rather than have a full-service coffee bar, which would be noisy and require a staff.
     "The idea is to enhance the business environment on the square," said Finney.
     Most of the official decision making at the charrette fell to the foundation members, said Finney, which is made up of the library board and few more volunteers. It is the library foundation which has been responsible for attaining the funds to purchase the three properties on the square, to do the design work and to run the coming fundraising campaign.
     The design work completed this weekend, said Finney, has been submitted to an estimator. If the budget proposed is too high for the foundation, he said, they will go back to the designs to scale back. If the budget for the designs is attainable, the library foundation will know where to work form and how to organize a fund-raising campaign, said Finney.
     The foundation hopes to determine what will happen to the old library building before fundraising begins, but nothing has yet been decided, said Finney. It is a good building, he said, ut it is jut too small to hold the library any longer. The foundation has heard interest from local businesses as well as municipal offices, but any decision will be made through an open process, as were plans for the new facility.