The Monrovia Public Library is nestled within the 100 year old ‘Library Park’ in the heart of Monrovia’s classical brick Old Town. The first iteration of the library was founded in 1891 by what would become the Women’s Club of Monrovia. In the 1940s the land for Library Park was bought and the first free-standing library was constructed. We were tasked with constructing the third freestanding Library in this succession. The architecture and interiors reflect our regard for these traditions while fulfilling a number of contemporary goals: employment of highly sustainable materials, comprehensive interior day-lighting, and presentation of the library as an enlivening public place.
The environmentally friendly building offers adult, child, and teen areas, a large community room, a heritage room, and expanded technology. The synthesis of traditions and contemporary goals was achieved through the building’s low-slung and stylistic intimacy with the park, its central clerestory lighting, generosity of spatial character, and use of renewable wood and cork materials in composing a simple but rich tonal palette. Well loved and utilized, the library is the true heart of the community.
