Elizabeth Taber Library

The Elizabeth Taber Library is in the coastal town of Marion, Massachusetts, and serves a small but devoted community. The library shares a home with the Historical Museum in a handsome Victorian building from 1898. It had been expanded in the eighties but had become outdated: the major spaces were somewhat dark and uninviting, the stacks were not accessible, and there was one small meeting room in the back.
In our design, we opened up the middle bay of the main floor to become an active zone, with tech bars and study pods. We exposed the rows of Corinthian columns that had been buried in the stacks, and used them to bookend niches where patrons could browse and study. We also added modern lighting and color to brighten up the Library and give it a new vibe.
The taller stacks were out to the wings, and we rotated them to allow for fully accessible aisles. And we moved the staff room in the back to double the size of the meeting room, while also adding a partition to make it divisible. Now the room can accommodate meetings of thirty, or half of it could be used for a small meeting. New study pods also accommodate tutors or pairs of students, while the young adult area can welcome larger groups.