Lamond-Riggs / Lillian J. Huff Library

A Place for Community Learning

For more than a decade, the DC Public Library has been a leader in redefining the community library and pushing for design excellence. Together, HGA and Consigli Construction led this collaborative design-build project, working closely with the staff and the community to design a new space to replace the existing library located on South Dakota Avenue in Northeast Washington, DC. This extensive community engagement led to a design that reflects the community’s goals to create a place that is welcoming, a place of learning and technology, and a place of community and history. The perforated aluminum screen along South Dakota Avenue is an abstraction of those goals, inspired by the patterns, rhythms and textures of the streets, residences, and open spaces of the surrounding neighborhood.

The new library, which is about 5,000 square feet larger than the facility it replaces, features:

• Expanded space for adults, teens, and children
• The Discovery Zone, for children and infants
• A variety of collaboration spaces including a living room-style seating area
• A large meeting room with capacity for up to 100 people, dividable into separate smaller rooms
• Seven smaller reservable meeting spaces, one for up to twelve people, two for up to six people each, and four study spaces designed for two people
• A protected front porch area that is accessed from inside the library and offers an outdoor area for meetings, working, or reading a book
• Modern and reliable technology offerings
• Efficient staff spaces

The new library is responsive to its site, sustainable in its approach and expected to achieve LEED Gold standards, and fully adaptable to evolve along with the neighborhood it serves. Landscape Architects Lee and Associates designed bioretention areas, added a tree canopy to provide shade, reinforced the streetscape form, and added buffer planting to screen the library parking lot.