Rosa F. Keller Library and Community Center

The structure today is one of seamless transition. Previously hovering on separate levels, the new design sought to unify the two disparate interiors. Raising the foundation of the historic home and creating the addition to match aimed to streamline the internal public space and mitigate the damage should another flood rise to similar levels. Paired with this internal community cohesion is the integration of active green space adjacent to the buildings. Retained from the prior design is an active play yard and exterior lawn for festivals or neighborhood celebrations. The design also endeavored to pay deference to the historic home. Pulling the original building back from the street focused the entrance to the home as a more prominent structural feature and unified the structure through a singular waypoint.

Perhaps it is no surprise that a community that suffered so much from the failure of structures designed to protect has become such a passionate advocate for rebuilding structures to endure. It was the community that insisted that the project pursue aggressive goals for sustainability and resilience, using the LEED certification process (recently attained) to provide a framework for validating efforts. Landscape and building form work together to manage the area’s intense and frequent rainfall events, using biological systems that mimic regional ecoystems, with a ‘river’ from the rooftop fed through a delta of wetlands that slow and filter the water, allowing it to slowly infiltrate back into soils—reducing the load on the city’s burdened storm water system and helping to reduce subsidence, a significant local problem. Nearly a decade later, the library, and the restored community center, replete with public gathering space and a rain garden, serve as a testament to community resolve and the role architecture and design play in urban revitalization.