Published in the December 2, 2015 edition
By MAUREEN DOHERTY
LYNNFIELD —What does the future hold for Lynnfield’s town library as a community resource?
About 50 community members attended the first of three community-wide meetings to share their ideas and learn about the town’s plans to modernize the library for the 21st century Nov. 19.
In addition, a task force meeting with teens, tweens and children will be held on Thursday, Dec. 10 to gather the input from young learners.
The first community visioning meeting was co-hosted by the Library Trustees, the Library Building Committee, which is chaired by Trustee Russell Boekenkroeger, the architectural firm of William Rawn Associates and the owner’s project manager, Design Technique Inc.
The ideas of the attendees compiled during four small group meetings held at the Nov. 19 forum will form the basis of the next community meeting on Thursday, Jan. 10 when design considerations will be discussed. All are welcome to participate.
Ultimately, a presentation will be made at April Town Meeting which will determine what may be funded for the next round of the state grant process. This application would be due after town meeting. Requests for funding would not occur before 2017.
The big question for the townspeople at this stage is whether to renovate and expand the existing library space or to repurpose this building for other town uses and build a new library on a corner of the town-owned Reedy Meadow Golf Course. It was stressed that building on this site would not affect the golf course.
Attendees were generally impressed by the other libraries and halls built by the architects, which include designs that take advantage of natural lighting and making connections to the surrounding landscape to provide spaces that support the need for collaborative learning and larger gatherings as well as quiet reflection. Siting a library at Reedy Meadow would provide an opportunity to take advantage of those expansive views.
Rawn’s work includes the main branch of the Cambridge Public Library, two neighborhood libraries in Boston – the East Boston branch and the Mattapan branch – as well as Williams College and Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood.
Boekenkroeger said that “two out of the last five years they were named the top architectural design firm in the U.S. They recently completed award-winning libraries and impressive and iconic buildings. We tried to serve the town of Lynnfield well by finding top notch people to be involved with and help us through this process.”
Sam Laskey and Kevin Bergeron represented Rawn. “A large portion of our practice is dedicated to civic buildings, libraries specifically,” Laskey said. “We feel very lucky to have worked on these many libraries. The response from the different communities has been inspiring to us. To see how much these different communities have embraced the library, how circulation has increased, how they’ve become the center of life in their communities, has been amazing to us – to see how much people still want to be in a place with books, in a pleasant, well-functioning library.”
Finding out what mattered to each community in which they’ve built libraries has been their “most important” role, Laskey added. The diversity of Cambridge led to creating a library space that provides “a mixing spot” for these diverse groups to meet, he said. At the East Boston branch library, which combined two smaller branches into one on a new site, the emphasis was on creating “a big room where families could come and even though kids might be in one place and parents in another, everyone could still see each other,” Laskey said.
The teen room was the focal point of the Mattapan branch, which is now “the largest teen room in the Boston system,” Laskey said, while their current project at the main Copley Square branch is focused on creating inviting spaces for the youngest learners.
“That’s what we want to hear from you. What is it that matters most? What are the things that this library can do here in Lynnfield and how can we make a library that is reflective of who you all are, what your community is, what you all want?” Laskey said.
“We can only do that with your help. The more we can listen and learn from you that would be extremely helpful to us,” Laskey said.
Bergeron concurred and emphasized, “We haven’t put pen to paper yet. We want to understand what you see as important goals for your new library. … We want to hear your ideas for both the building and ideas about the site.”
They’ve begun the feasibility study and will submit the grant application following April Town Meeting.
The town has gotten to this stage thanks to a grant awarded by the Mass. Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) totaling $50,000, which was combined with matching funds the library had set aside for this purpose from prior awards of state funding totaling $25,000. Therefore this study has not impacted the library’s operating budget, Library Director Nancy Ryan explained.
Bergeron explained that the existing library site had been studied when it was previously expanded, and they are aware it cannot “accommodate the parking required” by the MBLC which is one parking space for every 400 square feet of library space.
“To renovate the existing library to 28,000 square feet would require 70 spaces and that simply doesn’t fit on the site,” Bergeron said.
Moving the library to Reedy Meadow is “not a decision that has been absolutely made. We want to hear your ideas and input about that,” Bergeron said.
The slide show Bergeron presented gave side by side comparisons to the existing library space, such as the children’s room and the reading room, and the possibilities for such spaces found in other libraries they’ve designed.
Bergeron pointed out that they’ve been meeting in the mezzanine area of the existing library and one slide showed this area in comparison to a “program room” designed in other libraries. Offering a similar room in Lynnfield would “enable the library to have programming that is well beyond what they’re able to offer now,” he said, explaining if the library wants to hold any sort of special program the building has to be closed to the public.
“What should the new library be like? What kind of spaces and activities are important to it? What does the Reedy Meadow site offer and what are some ways that can be an asset to the community? What are the range of activities and town gatherings that might occur there in the future?” Bergeron asked the attendees to consider.
Spaces that segregate the various age groups topped the list of one focus group for the new or renovated library. The generation gap is alive and well at the library. Due to the limited space in the library it can be noisy in the shared space with the adults each afternoon.
The cost of such a project was also a concern of many. The cost has not yet been determined at this stage, Bergeron said.
Residents who cannot attend the visioning sessions can still have their voices heard by visiting the Library Building Committee’s website at www.lynnfieldlibrary.org/library-building-project/. Information on the grant process and the library building project is also available at the site.
