[Publib] Bad Architect tales - LONG!

[Paul Ericsson]

Colleagues --

The points here are well taken.

One of the postings sounds very familiar to a library I worked at 
that used a "nationally renown" architect for a new building 
project.  The collaborative process was marred by arrogance from the 
ever-so-famous architect and all staff recommendations were flatly 
denied.  One of the funny but at the same time not-so-funny problems, 
was the staff information desk that was positioned across from the 
men's room door.  The men's room lacked one of those privacy 
partitions that incoming/outgoing traffic would walk around, or other 
design features that provide privacy.  The net result was that the 
reference staff spent their day every time the men's room door 
opened, with a clear-shot view of the wall-to-wall mirror that 
reflected directly to the door-less men's urinal and also the toilet 
(that maybe had the door closed). After the first month the universal 
comment of the 100% female reference staff was "If I need to look at 
one more man taking a pee, I am going to SCREAM."

The other highlight of that building was the curved, open, two story 
cathedral ceiling.  The patrons sitting across the room at the quiet 
seating and study carrels, could hear a pin drop and at full volume 
all the working conversations from the circ desk, probably 60' 
away.  The curved ceiling in the one big main reading room had all of 
the acoustical properties of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake, or 
Avery Fisher Hall in NYC.

While these horror stories are so clear to see, my experience is that 
they illustrate well principals of library design. Hopefully when we 
do work on projects, we can avoid more subtle problems that these 
goofy examples illustrate.

Thanks for pulling together these postings.  Makes me thankful that 
the tweaking we are doing now at a 15 year-old building, are minor in 
comparison.

Paul


At 09:47 AM 11/15/2007, Su Epstein wrote:
>In partial reply to Kevin's question and as many requested, here are the
>tales that I received to my inquiry --  they are copied here to avoid the
>attachment and all names have been removed to protect the innocent!
>Su
>
>PS - my personal favorite is the fireman's pole!
>
>Su Epstein, Ph.D.
>Library Director
>Saxton B. Little Free Library
>Columbia, CT 06237
>==
>1.  The children's story nook with baseboard radiators that get hot enough
>to burn little fingers.
>2.  A fireman's pole in the children's area.
>3.  A sliding board from the children's second floor to its' first.
>4.  The six foot tall shelving in the children's department.
>5.  The soaring cathedral ceilings that look lovely and suck up the heat
>from the floor where most staff and patrons work.
>6.  Children's rooms with no sink or rest room.
>7.  The adult magazine reading area placed so close to the front door that
>in the winter no one is willing to sit there and be blasted by cold air
>whenever anyone enters or leaves the building.  Then there is the south
>facing, glass walled adult reading area that gets so hot in the summer the
>air conditioning can't deal with it.
>8.  The "state of the art" heating system that was so complicated no local
>contractor could deal with its idiosyncrasies.
>9.  The hardware on the rest room doors that was imported from Denmark and
>extremely costly to replace.
>10.  The glass enclosed gazebo meant to be a children's story area.  The
>shape made the room difficult to use and the extensive use of glass caused
>the room to be drafty.
>11.  The risers added to the children's area and meant to be used for story
>seating.  They are used for climbing and jumping and have proven to be too
>hard and high for story hours.
>
>Of all these, only numbers 2 and 3 were overruled by a librarian or building
>committee.  The architect won in the other instances.  Of course the
>architect gets to go home and library staff are left to deal with the issues
>caused by bad ideas.
>===
>Poor orientation of the building on the site.  Twice a year the circ desk is
>hit with blinding sunlight as the light pours through the two-story front
>windows.  So bad that a large sun-blocking screen had to be added.
>
>-For a 4 year old building, I don't think any "green" features were included
>in the design.
>
>-Handicapped parking is too far from the building.
>===
> >  YES, just because an architect has worked on a lot of libraries and has
> >   built up a reputation for that doesn't mean that they design
> >   FUNCTIONAL facilities.
>
>Exactly, It's not a question who the architect is, it's how functional. For
>example take my library (please! yeah, yeah, it's Friday), it was designed
>by a very famous architect, yet it really has no business being a library.
> >From day one (literately) the librarians commented about how this space was
>not going to work as a library.  Yet people come in and say something like
>"Ooohh, this building is a ****, isn't it wonderful?" my response usually is
>to just smile, and leave it alone. If any of them had to actually work in
>here they would be singing a different tune. The poor design of the library
>has led to many 'challenges', and hazards for the staff and it's patrons.
>====
>I just had to write you about my experience as a Library worker at ------.
>In 1994 they had a beautiful new building designed and of course a gorgeous
>glass enclosed library.  They had beautiful cherry wood veneer book shelves
>installed.  The only problem was that within one week of the books being on
>the shelves, all the shelves began to warp.  Not a word of a lie, the
>architect's idea to deal with this was to put the heavy books on the bottom
>shelves - (now why didn't we think of that - we could develop a whole new
>cataloguing system)  Luckily we were able to convince them that we needed
>sturdier shelves.  Of course 2 years after being there we were in need of a
>bigger library - which was impossible because of the way the building was
>designed.
>====
>While not disagreeing that libraries designed by architects can be less than
>functional, libraries designed primarily by librarians can be less than
>functional as well.  I once substituted in a library designed by primarily
>by a team of librarians.  The light level was so low that we kept
>flashlights at the reference desk--and I'm not kidding!
>
>I think it's important for librarians and architects and designers to work
>very closely together, including visiting (or at least looking at a lot of
>pictures) libraries that you think work well and, perhaps more important,
>those that you DON'T like.  Librarians don't speak the same language as
>architects.  (For example, the word "program" means something completely
>different to each profession.)
>
>A great library building results from a clear and well-articulated building
>program, developed by librarians (and perhaps with input from customers and
>others in the community), realized and, generally, improved by architects
>and designers who are attentive and creative.  Each profession brings a lot
>to the table.  But this doesn't work without partnership and collaboration.
>I think it's important to visit or view some libraries designed by the
>architect AND to talk with the architects about their style--how do they
>work with clients.
>===
>YES, just because an architect has worked on a lot of libraries and has
>built up a reputation for that doesn't mean that they design FUNCTIONAL
>facilities.  We've had a lot of new libraries go up in this area over the
>past five years or so and I've visited many of them.  Each and every time
>the librarians would show me one (or more) problem that resulted from an
>unfortunate decision that had been made.  Often times the librarians would
>say "we asked them to do it such-and-such way but...".
>
>At one library there were these beautiful built-in furniture pieces
>installed right over the electrical sockets.  In order to unplug or plug
>something in you have to crawl on the floor and reach up below the back of
>the piece.  Even then it isn't always possible to reach the socket.  Sight
>lines are also something that is often ignored by architects because they
>can't understand their importance.  I also worked at one library where the
>desks were extremely short so they were VERY uncomfortable to sit at,
>especially when you were on the desk for an 8 hour shift.  On top of that
>the desk drawers (in the same desk) only came out half way so you couldn't
>really use them for storing.
>
>I think it's an excellent decision to go and visit the other libraries that
>the architects have done.  In particular ask them if there were any things
>they would have done differently...  I suspect that most people aren't going
>to want to say anything negative about their architects.  I think that most
>library architects work very hard creating a beautiful and functional space
>but sometimes perhaps the Form part does get ahead of the Function part.
>  ===
>Thought I'd share some comments - and - it's not just the architects, also
>include the interior designers  They have these creative ideas that don't
>work well in a public space.   We've been in our building 4 years and
>architecture/design issues continue to crop up!  Here's a few of the big
>ones.
>
>-Grid patterned carpet in all public areas with RAISED squares as part of
>the grid.  It's a horrible trip hazard, as well as creating a ton of noise
>when the book carts are rolled over it.  We hate it.
>
>-A 'grand staircase' up the center of the building that acts as a giant
>funnel to move all of the downstairs noise (circ desk, public areas, etc.)
>up to the quiet areas upstairs.
>
>-A huge granite circ desk that now does not allow for re-configuration, as
>the needs of the circ staff have changed.
>
>-A totally enclosed teen room - not a good idea to give them so much
>privacy!
>
>And don't get me started on the uncomfortable, but stylish chairs that can't
>handle the wear & tear from the public.
>===
>About thirty years ago I was hired as a school librarian in a small but
>rapidly expanding town in Iowa.  The school was in the middle of a building
>project which included a new high school library on two floors (bad idea
>from a supervisory aspect).  The upper floor made a pretty u-shaped balcony
>with a flight of stairs up the base of the u.  The architect's plan had
>study carrels all along the inner part of the u-with no modesty panels,
>because "it will ruin the esthetics of the building".  The school board
>president jumped on that plan, saying that it was just asking for boys to
>sit down below to stare up girls' skirts (remember the mini?).  The
>architect said, "Oh, no boy would do that!"  The board president replied,
>"No red-blooded American boy WOULDN"T do that.  No panels, no pay."
>
>The board did go along with his white tabletops and sofa over my objections,
>which of course were just writing surfaces waiting for student inspiration.
>
>We also ended up the hallway between the school admin office and the rest of
>the school, with the bulk of our collection along that wall.  We had many
>books "walk" off and end up tucked into obscure parts of the school, like
>behind the tanks of the toilets, etc.
>===
>In a Virginia library just over ten years ago the City Manager and the
>Purchasing Director jointly worked with the architects. I was written out of
>the loop and couldn't get back into it because I was a "Division Head" not a
>"Department Head." Don't ask why the Purchasing Director had so much "say
>so." His son was getting his MLS. Apparently that made Dad an expert.
>
>The Purchasing Director wanted a nice wide stair case. He'd seen one
>someplace else and fell in love with it. We at least wanted storage under
>the semi-circular, extra-wide staircase. That was denied as impractical
>because it would have needed a door with air vents in case someone got
>locked inside. (I have no idea why that kind of door was going to be a
>problem.) But we wasted almost 50% of the space "added" by this small
>addition. The staircase was wide enough for southern belles in hoop skirts
>to descend two-by-two, each with a male escort because women might not be
>able to negotiate stairs safely.
>
>The staircase was descending from a mezzanine level. [Another asinine idea
>for wasting space.] The rail along the mezzanine and the side "walls" of the
>staircase were navy blue rods that had cross bars every two feet. These rods
>were one & one-half ft. three ft. and four & one-half ft. above and parallel
>to the floor. It looked like a jungle-gym and was used by kids as a jungle
>gym. They would dash over to the mezzanine, climb the "barrier" peer-over
>and shout, "Look at me, Mom." We had to purchase shelving to place against
>the jungle-gym so the architects visual loveliness was hidden.
>
>The reference desks were moved to the former magazine area so we completely
>lost any real area for magazines. The ADA bathrooms were large-enough that
>no one would ever be able to say we'd skimped on space. the entrance and
>bathrooms eliminated all the former space for our microfilm cabinets and
>microfilm readers. After a 3/4 million dollar project we increased the size
>of the bathrooms and increased the area available to genealogy. We lost
>patron and staff space to that staircase and lost our entire magazine area
>because something had to go when the staircase space was added. The
>genealogy area was increased because the City Manager was a genealogist.
>===
>Well, here at our headquarters branch, the architects have hard walls that
>flare out like a trumpet's bell at the top of the stairs from Circ to the
>main floor which amplifies every single street noise.  And since the lovely
>hardwood beamed ceiling reflects the sound, that's a lot.  The Circ lobby
>has single-pane glass doors streetside and to our parking lot.  Also, the
>staff rest rooms are about 100 yards from everybody but the Outreach Dept.
>It would probably be well not to mention our name...
>
>I have one I heard from a retiree once that I can't verify, but don't doubt.
>He was on his library's board and when the new plans came out got a copy and
>left them in their staff room for comment.  A page (!) noticed that the
>layout of walls and shelving around the staff elevator in the new building
>would make it impossible for pages to unload carts from the elevator.
>===
>Twenty-five (or so) years ago, the town of ----- hired a "specialist
>architect" to design the new town library.  He put all the lighting in the
>8' ceiling running from east to west.  Immediately below the lighting the 7'
>shelving was installed.  You guessed it--though the tops of the shelves were
>well-lit, the aisles, spines, and spine labels were in deep shadow.  If the
>shelving had been rotated 90 degrees, there would have been no possibility
>for supervision, besides making access to the aisles more difficult for
>staff.  Or, we could have moved the shelving so that each aisle was centered
>upon a light--at the cost of 25% of the shelving.  We lived with it.
>===
>We had such a "pro" at a library I was at a couple of years ago. He forgot
>to design any place for a librarian to be in the library. There was just the
>
>circulation desk with one station.
>
>He didn't measure the place, relying on someone else's measurement. We had
>to cut shelves in half to make them fit.
>
>And he designed electric sockets to fit behind built in desk drawers.
>
>
>
>
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