During the 09/15/2021 Common Council meeting, the Council received an update on the Library Project. Mayor Woodford noted that it had been about a year to the day that the city had announced their change in direction and new focus on the existing library site. He invited representatives from SOM, the library architect, and Boldt, the construction manager, to share an update one where the project current was. Adam Semel, the SOM representative, appeared in person to give the presentation rather than virtually which the mayor thought spoke well of the attention SOM was giving to the project and to Appleton.
Before getting into the specifics of the design, he gave a little bit of background on the team and the process they took to arrive at their design. He said the process had been characterized by a lot of dialogue, engagement, and creative input from all corners of the community.
The SOM team included architects, engineers, interior designers, and sustainability experts.
SOM was backed by an even larger team of specialist. They had their own internal team of experts, but were backed by a team of about 8 or 9 consultants with whom they worked including specialists in everything from lighting design, acoustics, library specialist planning, elevators, and all the technology that goes into a library building. They really wanted to turn out a quality product for the City of Appleton.
He then reviewed the process they had gone through to get the project to this point.
- They started with a technical building assessment to understand what the existing conditions were from an architectural, materials, and structural and engineering standpoint.
- They interviewed staff to understand what their needs would be.
- They conducted a staff visioning and imaging session to talk about likes and dislikes and provide the opportunity blue sky thinking about what the library could become.
- Reached out to teens to understand what their needs and interests were.
- They invited around dozen members of the library staff and a couple board members to Chicago to visit a few libraries, some of which SOM designed and some that SOM just admired. They talked with the commissioner of the Chicago Public Library system about what is and is not working and about lessons learned.
- They held a staff planning worship in which they did a deep dive on the specific needs of the library so they could tailor the design to that.
- They held a meeting with the Library Building Project Advisory Committee which gave them a broad range of input that had a great impact of the design.
- They presented the library design publicly at the Library Board meeting.
- They presented the library design at a virtual community meeting
He said the rest of the process would continue to be characterized by similar intense dialogue, listening, and community and stakeholder engagement. Their goal was that by the summer/fall of 2023 they would be opening a new library building to the public.
He stated that, “One of the things I just want to talk about on process is we see ourselves as custodians of the resources of the city, so it’s our commitment to work with the budget that will seek approval in the fall.”
They’ve designed a process that is designed to that budget. He termed it a “belt and suspenders approach”. They have three stages they go through in designing a project: schematic design, design development, and construction documents. At each of those milestones, they do two cost estimates—not just one, but two. One of those is by the full SOM team that has been engaged by the city and one is by a specialist consultant SOM works with. They then reconcile those two estimates to iron out the differences and come to a reconciled estimate. Based on the knowledge that they are on budget, they then go to the next step. So, they will do that three times throughout the process. They don’t know exactly how bids will come back, but it gives them a lot of cost certainty as they approach bidding.
He then moved on to the explanation of the design. The first question they faced was whether to reuse the old building or start fresh. When they first got the Request for Proposal a year ago, they decided that if the building had good bones and was worth keeping that seemed like the right things to do.
They believed renovating the current building was worth doing or multiple reasons.
1. Sustainability. They know that’s one of Appleton’s values and it’s one of SOMs also. If a building is in good shape the most sustainable thing is, when possible, to reuse old existing structures. That will also be a great starting point in seeking LEED certification, whether they go for Silver, Gold, or Platinum.
2. Building Life-Span and Heritage. A decent, well-built building should have a lifespan of at least 100 years. The library building is only 40 years old. They know that its column spans can work for a new library and that the current building has bones that are in good shape. There have been a couple of other buildings around town that have been renovated and they provide character. “Renovating old buildings is a great way to showcase the heritage of a community.”
3. Community. The library is an institution that has served the community for a long time, so there is value in the idea of continuity and improving and enhancing what already exists as opposed to starting over.
From an analytical standpoint, they determined that a combination of renovating the existing building and adding an addition, as opposed to constructing an entirely new building or simply renovating the existing structure without adding anything on provided the best value for the dollar and helped give the library everything that was needed in terms of square footage and the types of spaces that were needed.
They wanted to accomplish a number of things with the renovation and addition.
- Create a safe and inviting space by adding daylight and visibility.
- Create an inclusive, diverse, and welcoming interior space.
- Improve functionality for staff and patrons
- Set a sustainable benchmark for the city through the reuse of the building
- Improve vertical connectivity. The floors of the current library are very disconnected, so they want to make sure the floors in the new library feel more connected.
- Create functional and accessible outdoor space at every level.
- Create after hours meeting and study spaces that would be partitioned off from the general meeting areas of the library.
- Create a new identity for the building.
He showed a picture of the current building and said, “Nice, nice, but we know we can to better.”
He then showed a concept picture of the new design and said, “And here’s how it’s gonna look tomorrow. Again, what we’re trying to achieve here is something that’s welcoming, inclusive, transparent, inviting, and we really think we’re headed in the right direction from that point of view.”
They plan to take off the facades of the building and put something on that is more energy efficient and functional, brings in more daylight, and provides more continuity with the glass pavilions that they plan to add. When it’s all completed it won’t necessarily look like a renovated building, but all the economy, intelligence, and savings from the reuse of the existing materials will be there.
He showed a stacking diagram which illustrated the bottom floor, the first floor, and the second floor of the new building. The first floor included the adult collection and teen space, general meeting spaces, a multi-purpose room, and other meeting spaces that are intended for longer meetings. There will be more open and taller spaces than the old building.
The bottom floor included the children’s area and the tween space as well as the “learning stair”, staff space, and a discovery garden.
The first floor also went up to the second level which included more of the adult collect, more staff space, the roof terrace, and something he termed the “flex box” which was designed to be a flexible board room space that could serve a lot of functions.
He provided another view of the exterior as seen if approaching from the east.
He reviewed the diagrams of each floor in more detail. Those diagrams all seem pretty self-explanatory. He also provided concept pictures of what those floors would look like once constructed. They want to bring light deep into the building, not only to the first floor but even down all the way to the lower level, and create visibility and connectivity all around. He also noted that the restrooms were designed with an eye toward safety, visibility, privacy, and functionality.
The general space of the bottom floor was all children’s area and included a garden that was designed to be a children’s learning environment.
He also said that there was outdoor space on every level wrapping around the building.
Ground Floor
Second Floor
Lower Level
With that, he opened things up for questions.
Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) said he loved the design and thought it would be a definite upgrade from what we currently have.
Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) wanted to know what happened to the children’s care in the winter with all the snow.
Adam said they would have to work with the library on how the garden would be utilized in the winter. He said the space would have to be maintained and he thought the programing would change with the seasons. They had to talk about maintenance and he said they had not yet explored whether they would use snow melt or have a maintenance program that included now clearing. [It seemed a little weird to me that they would definitively put a garden in the design without having determined the answers to those questions.]
Mayor Woodford said that Director Gazza was the city’s project manager and he was watching and engaging in the design process with an eye toward maintainability. Staff was also keeping an eye on that through the process.
Alderperson Maiyoua Thao (District 7) thought it was a beautiful design and wondered if 20-30 years down the road would the city have the ability to build up if it wanted to expand or would it have to build out?
Adam said that the garden on the second floor did provide some space for a future expansion, but they hadn’t thought about what a future expansion would look like and that was probably pretty far off in the future. He noted that library continue to be less and less about physical book collections, although that is still an important part of what a library does, and more and more about community spaces. He didn’t think anything they were doing now with the building would not be able to accommodate new uses in the future.
Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) asked how many parking spaces they were going to lose in the front of the building.
Adam answered that right now there were approximately 90 spaces in the front of the building. They were confident they would be able to maintain about half of those spaces, and they also thought that all of those could be dedicated for library use going forward (currently some are used by city staff). He didn’t have a definitive number though.
Alderperson Siebers said he had the impression that access to the library would be more than just in the front and that there would be points on the west or east sides also.
Adam said that the general access point for the public would still be the main entrance. There would, however, be a number of other ingress and egress points around the building that would be used in different ways. There would be a staff entrance on the east side separate from the main entrance and there would be an entrance on the west side that would allow the building to be opened after hours that would access the big meeting spaces if someone wanted to hold functions in there. He mentioned that it could be used to allow direct access for voting if they wanted to maintain a separation from the rest of the library. There were two other places in the building that were for exist only which had been installed for safety purposes.
There was also going to be a proper loading dock on the north side of the new building with two bays that trucks would be able to back into.
Alderperson Siebers also wanted to know if there would be a book drop-off.
Adams said that would be next to the vestibule on the main floor. The parking lot would include a dedicated drop-off area where people can pull their cars up, hope out, drop books off, and then hope back in without having the park.
Alderperson Joe Prohaska (District 14) asked if this information was on the city’s website so the public could see it.
Mayor Woodford answered that there was a very active project page on the Appleton Public Library’s website and that the materials presented would also be available in the Common Council meeting minutes. [The PowerPoint wasn’t actually available in the minutes, and I had to go through the video and screen capture each slide.]
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) thought it was an incredible design. He liked the passive solar energy that was coming into the building and wondered if it would be used perhaps through flooring material. He also wondered if there was talk of incorporating components of renewables like active solar vs just the passive light currently in the design.
Adam said they were looking at passive solar in terms of the way the light comes in and can potentially heat up some of the building. It’s a great way to both save energy and make the building more comfortable. They have not finalized the flooring materials and there are a lot of factors that will go into that decision. They want passive solar design but also want to make sure they don’t overheat the building or have glare in those spaces. There is a whole range of functional and special considerations they have to take into account. Although Alderperson Schultz mentioned active solar, Adam said that they were looking into geothermal and other more active technologies to generate energy. Right now, they were looking at what they could do within the budget. It was all about prioritization. The investments they make now will all have a payback, sometimes in 5, 10, or 20 years and so it’s a decision about what they can afford to invest in now to save dollars later and be more sustainable along the way.
Alderperson Schultz asked how much of the existing utility structure they were repurposing.
Adam said everything was going to be gutted—the electrical, HVAC, and plumbing. They were going to start from scratch with those things given that they were moving everything around. Some of the equipment was in okay shape but he didn’t think it made practical sense to reuse it, and they were going to start over with more energy efficient equipment that will last longer.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) also loved the building. She wondered about the possibility of installing solar panels on the roof. She also thought they should go for as high a LEED level as they could possibly work out. She thought it would be a point of pride of the city.
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) said that one of her concerns, which was shared by some of her constituents, was families having to park on the other side of the transit center and then walk across the areas where busses are coming and going. She thought it was important to have a straight path to and from the library.
Adam said the envisioned doing everything they could to create a safe path for families, seniors, and anyone else parking in the yellow parking ramp and walking to the library. He thought that would involve creating pedestrian priority, clear markings, and great visibility for people walking.
Alderperson Van Zeeland thought Valley Transit could get involved in that discussion.
Mayor Woodford said they were, but that went beyond the library design they were talking about that evening. It did, however, continue to be a point of emphasis. He reminded the Council that they had approved a planning contract with design firm RDG to create a broader neighborhood level plan.
After the presentation by SOM, Mayor Woodford introduced Paul Coenen from the Boldt Construction Company who will be overseeing the construction process. Paul introduced his team and thanked the Council for putting their faith in the Boldt Company. They built the original building back in the early 80s.
He didn’t have presentation materials like Adan had, but that’s typical of a construction process. They come in early and serve a supportive function. He was leading the preconstruction team and said they had had 3 or 4 meetings already with SOM in which they were beginning to drill down into the details and understand each other. Boldt was going to be getting schematic design documents later that week, and then in about 3 weeks the y could have their initial first cost estimate. That cost estimate would include a lot of shopping list items and alternatives and different ways to satisfy the requirements of the project that aren’t necessarily spelled out just yet. He said it was a very fluid process of estimating at the front end of the project to make sure they don’t go too far with certain design elements. They try to work a budget so that they’re on top of it on the front end and can deliver a project in the budget that’s been established. They were comfortable working side by side with SOM to deliver the library project on schedule and on budget.
He said that as a local contractor, they were excited about the locality of this job and in terms of suppliers, labor forces, and equipment, they were trying to do it as locally as possible, although there might be some things that they need to reach out further than the Fox Cities.
Alderperson Schultz asked how the materials mark was going to influence the project over time.
Paul said that we’re all living through the effects of Covid on the economy and there have been some delivery challenges in the construction industry as well as many other industries which has come with associated price increases. They have been keeping that situation in mind. Fortunately, he said, some materials, such as lumber, are starting to come down a little bit. Others are staying up there or even climbing, but they’re keeping an eye on the marketplace as they develop their estimates. They’re also sourcing materials that they know we can get our hands on. He said the Fox Valley and the state of Wisconsin was fortunate to have a lot of trustworthy sources for construction materials. He also mentioned that they would have to be thoughtful as they build the project schedule to allow adequate time for product delivery.
Mayor Woodford said, “Just to set some expectations on the cost estimation. We’re really early in that process and still early, as Adam said, we’re moving into schematic design now, but that’s early goings in terms of that process so I just want a level set on expectations as we go. It’s something that we’re watching very closely and have been very clear about the budget that’s been established for this project and as I hope you can see from this team there’s a deep shared commitment among the group to hold to those targets as we work on the project, so I just wanted to do a little expectation setting as we go because we’ll soon be getting into budget conversations but just want to be clear that we’re early goings and not to expect detailed cost estimation at these early stages of the project, but we’ll certainly be presenting those as we move along through the process.”
That ended the update on the Library Project.
[Frankly, in spite of them trying to assure the public that the project will stay in budget, I’ll be amazed if that actually happens. Prior to his departure, former Alderperson and Council President Kyle Lobner made a post on social media that seemed to indicate the possibility of increased library project costs and some members of the public seemed very open to increased costs also.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=884420&GUID=190AFC4D-5884-4ACF-B011-89788EDB42BD
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