A Textbook Case:
Evanston Builds a New Library

Ted Peterson

When the City of Evanston built its new library, it produced not only an excellent public facility but a textbook example of successful design, construction and project management. The team that wrote the book included a young architect with his first significant commission, a large firm acting as architect of record, a major Chicago real estate company that had just built the nation's biggest municipal library, the City of Evanston and, of course, the Evanston Public Library administration and staff. Together, they envisioned what the new facility should include and how to realize that vision efficiently, effectively, expediently and economically.

Call for Entries

The call for a new facility started in 1981 as library use reached 1,500 patrons a day, straining the capacity of the existing 54,000-square-foot building constructed in 1960. Over the next decade, Evanston debated whether to expand the library, raze it and rebuild on the same site or relocate.

By 1990, the city had opted for a new building on the old site and set out to select a design. An internaional design competition elicited the community input that was absent during the previous building's development. More than 1,250 registrations came in from architects as far away as Italy, Japan, Israel and New Zealand. The 378 final entries were reviewed by a distinguished jury including four architects, the editor of Progressive Architecture and three city officials.

For three days the panel pored over the designs, each identified only by a code number to ensure impartiality. The jurists chose a Prairie School-inspired design that impressed them with its spatial clarity, site sensitivity, interior flexibility and attention to detail. Their admiration turned to amazement when they discovered that the selected design had come from a 28 year-old architect laid off by a Philadelphia architectural firm. Working from his home, Joseph Powell had beaten some of the biggest powerhouses in architecture to win his first major commission, plus a $20,000 prize. The second- and third-place entries, Harrison Fraker of Minneapolis and Michael Blakemore of San Francisco, shared $15,000 in awards.

Edits and Revisions

Clearly, such a large undertaking would require resources beyond those available to an independent architect. Powell found himself fielding proposals from about 30 Chicago-area architects interested in working with him, but instead pursued a recommendation to team up with Nagle, Hartray & Associates, which had earlier designed two buildings on Northwestern University's Evanston campus.

Meanwhile, the City of Evanston had engaged U. S. Equities Development Inc. as program manager for the $23 million project. The firm is the development arm of U. S. Equities Realty Inc., which headed the design-building team that had just completed Chicago's Harold Washington Library Center, the nation's largest municipal library. City and library officials benefited from working with one of Chicago's foremost real estate firms, familiar not only with development and construction but with the leasing market and facility management—all of which came into play as the project progressed. Ultimately, U. S. Equities' recommendations would expand the original 109,000-square-foot design by 3,000 square feet while achieving significant savings and trimming 17 months from the original 46-month project schedule.

U. S. Equities next suggested that the city abandon its two-phased plan to construct one wing on annexed land, then raze the old facility and build a second new wing on the current library site. Instead, the real estate company saw an opportunity to take advantage of 1991's sudden drop in rental rates by leasing a temporary library location, demolishing the old library and building the entire new facility in a single phase. The revised plan saved 17 months of construction costs, most notably the general contractor's general conditions expenses, which amounted to $47,000 a month. Even with the cost of the interim move and the

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buildout and operation of the temporary space, savings would total $750,000.

U. S. Equities won City Council and committee approval for the concept. Within 60 days, the firm had identified and recommended two buildings with the load-bearing capacity to accommodate the heavy library books, negotiated with the two landlords for 30-month leases and finalized negotiations for four-and-a half floors in a building just a block from the library site. The temporary quarters, less than half the size of the existing library, housed only the most popular materials, while the rest were sent to storage for the project's duration. Patrons who requested items from storage usually received them within 24 hours.

By constructing the new library on a clear site in one phase, U. S. Equities also opened the door to refine the schematic design, expanding the building to 112,000 square feet while reducing construction costs.

Additionally, the firm recommended that the general contractor come aboard during the design development phase. Securing the contractor's input during design added valuable insights on constructability and pricing. U. S. Equities also placed the Evanston library project under stringent fiscal controls by requiring that the general contractor guarantee a maximum price at 80 percent completion of drawings, and adjust the figure (downward only) if the subcontractors' bids totaled less than the guaranteed maximum price.

The general contracting assignment went to W. E. O'Neil Construction Co., which set to work with the designers on further value engineering before putting the library project out to bid. The bids came in $1.5 million under the original budget.

Elements of Style

Over the following months, the new library began to take its present shape. Its Prairie-style design recalls Frank Lloyd Wright's classic Larkin Building, yet reflects and enriches the surrounding community. The library's siting capitalizes on its location at the comer of Church Street and Orrington Avenue, where Evanston's street grid changes direction. Careful attention to sight lines give the structure the visual prominence appropriate for a major public building.

Tall windows stretch three-and-a-half stories to vaulted roof arches at the eaves. Piers topped by sculptures accent the concrete facade, finished in iron-spotted Norman-sized brick with decorative cast-stone elements. On the south side, benches, trees and a clock tower create an inviting public plaza. Below grade, a 33,000-square-foot garage accommodates 48 cars as well as mechanical rooms and storage space.

Mechanical engineer WMA Consulting Engineers specified a sophisticated HVAC system with higher-than-usual ventilation rates to promote indoor air quality and prevent pollutant build-up from substances such as the formaldehyde in book bindings. U. S. Equities' Facilities Management Division proposed modifications that made the system easier and less expensive to operate.

The building exceeds the accessibility requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, while input

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from a group representing people with chemical sensitivities helped influence the choice of materials, such as solid woods and natural fibers for carpets, which further enhanced the aura of quality.

Inside Story

Inside, the new library tells a story of form and function. The facility, twice the size of its predecessor, has a 430,000-volume capacity, more than enough to bring the library's 300,000-volume main collection under one roof for the first time in 20 years. Features include three self-serve check-out stations, an electronic notification service to let patrons know when requested books become available, four public-access CD-ROM computers linked to database networks, two Internet stations, and four public access computers for children.

The main entrance opens into a lobby with an information desk and checkout service. Elevators and a stairway lead up to the second-floor general collection and a dramatic third-floor reference room with a high, domed ceiling clad in white pine. Steel plates cast into the concrete supporting columns on the third floor allow for future expansion by splitting the reference room into two stories. The fourth floor houses administrative space. Throughout, clean, uncluttered architectural lines emphasize the Prairie-school influence and evoke a sense of open space.

Interior designer Jeanne Hartnett & Associates researched materials used during the Arts and Crafts period of the early 1900s, contemporaneous with the Larkin Building. The period influence appears in the selection of linoleum tops on oak tables, the checker board carpet, greenstone countertops and terrazzo of pea gravel rather than marble.

Hartnett found a manufacturer, Agati Inc., which made furnishings and paneling in this style, and Powell worked with the company to customize the look. As a finishing touch, Powell's design for square glass lanterns hanging from the ceiling pays homage both to Wright and to Evanston's famous Tallmadge street lights. The library's new look even extends to a new typeface and logo by graphic designer John Greiner that complement the architecture.

The new library also showcases four commissioned artworks: Michele Oka Doner's intricate bronze "Book Leaves," 65 cast-bronze botanical images embedded in the terrazzo floor; Beverly Stucker Precious' "For Endless Trees," two window panels of colored glass and

hand-wrought steel; and Ralph Helmick's and Stuart Schechter's "Ghost Writer," a 1,600-pound, 40-foot-long suspended sculpture surrounded by spirals and floating words and symbols. Outdoors, sculpture by Richard Hunt will top the piers along the library's south face. The works are the first created under the city's Public Art Ordinance, which suggests committing up to one percent of public-building budgets for art.

The Final Analysis

The opening of Evanston's new library in October 1994 closed the last chapter of a design and construction project that grew in scope while saving time and money. The final result reflects thoughtful planning by city officials and library staff; an excellent choice of design; and the decision to invest in professional program management. Taking a team approach, the city, the architects, U. S. Equities and the builder together produced a facility that speaks volumes about successful library development.

*Ted Peterson, President, U. S. Equities Development Inc., the development and construction affiliate of U. S. Equities Realty, Inc., a leading full-service real estate firm headquartered in Chicago.

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