Library design takes shape

WASILLA — Weeks following a vote to finance a new Wasilla Public Library, plans for the complex are taking shape with ample parking, an amphitheater and open interior layout.

That’s the plan a handful of locals favored Wednesday afternoon at a schematic design meeting with ECI/Hyer Architecture at Wasilla City Hall. ECI/Hyer architect Brian Meissner presented a trio of potential site plans with possible building layouts, and by the end of the meeting, consensus favored the same plan library staff preferred, Meissner said.

“There were several reasons they liked it,” he said. “They liked the visibility and the relationship between the teens areas and kids areas. They also liked the relationships with staff support to be able to see who’s coming and going.”

That’s because the scheme calls for a central, open design that allows staff to visually see every part of the library, along with a good view of the parking areas, Meissner said. The site plan also shows the 23,500-square-foot building situated diagonally on the lot with a natural buffer of woods between the library and busy cross streets Swanson Avenue and Crusey Street. The 91 parking spaces are a huge improvement over the 13 spaces at the current library, observed Rosemary Vavrin, a Wasilla resident attending the meeting.

“These schemes respond to what we heard a month ago,” Meissner said, referring to a September public meeting.

Terry Schoenthal, a landscape architect with DOWL HKM, said he planned with information from that first meeting, where residents said they preferred a site layout that allows for access off both Crusey Street and Swanson Avenue, along with preserving the “Alaskaness” of the area.

The preferred plan has the parking lot following the natural curve of an elevation change on the property, Schoenthal said. It also provides “a perfect” spot for the amphitheater on the northwest corner of the property across the parking lot from the library entrance, he said.

“We’ve also pushed some parking up into the north (part of the site),” he said. That will also allow for overflow parking from nearby Wasilla Middle School and the Brett Memorial Ice Arena.

Although it doesn’t impact library plans, the architects also are working on ways to help alleviate some of the traffic congestion created during student drop-off and pick-up at the middle school, Meissner said. That’s because as a condition of donating the $1.3 million property adjacent to the school for the library, the city agreed to help the Mat-Su Borough School District with that problem.

“I think there actually is a solution there,” Schoenthal said. “Part of that is just segregating the parent drop-off from the school buses.”

Because of the 30-foot grade difference between the parcels, it’s not reasonable to think traffic from the school could be diverted through the library parking area, Schoenthal said. “I think the solution lies on the school grounds and it’s to reconfigure what they’ve got there now.”

Most of those attending Wednesday’s meeting are also members of the city’s Library Building Committee, and they brought up a slew of questions about the schematic design and interior layout.

Vavrin said she’s concerned about how accessible the property will be from the bus stop on Crusey Street.

“I don’t know if I’m the only bus rider here, but I guess I’m speaking for all of them,” she said. She said she wants to make sure there’s a clear path to the building from the bus stop. She also likes the open concept. “I like this because I walk in and here I am. I’m in the library and there isn’t a long hallway.”

Ralph Baldwin, a building committee member, wants to ensure the new library make the most of its southeast facing back wall to take advantage of sunlight while preserving as much nature on the property as possible. He also wants to make sure the bathrooms not only meet minimum requirements for handicapped accessibility, but exceed them.

“Let’s take a good look at those bathrooms to make them great — G-R-E-A-T — handicapped accessible, not just do (the minimum) of what’s required.”

Sheann Limberg attended as a representative of local service organization Mat-Su Sertoma, a group that works to improve hearing health and quality of life for the hearing impaired. She urged the designers and committee members to consider including technology in the library’s public meeting rooms and possibly one of the help desk areas to aid the hearing impaired.

Called a loop, the system consists of a wire and a microphone, she said. The wire circles, or “loops,” the area of affect and anyone within that area can have sound amplified through their hearing aids or through special headphones that would be available at the library.

“It’s a wire that’s run around in a continuous loop and run through a conductor, a little amp box, and a microphone,” she said. “It’s a way to provide the hard of hearing an opportunity to join in and participate. Your meeting rooms should be looped.”

She said the Valley Performing Arts theater was the first building in the state to be looped, and that Sertoma may be able to help with some of the cost if a decision is made to loop parts of the library and/or amphitheater.

Moving forward, Meissner said architects want to meet through informal work sessions with the committee and public every four weeks, with the next one set for Nov. 20. The project schedule now calls for schematic design work to continue throughout 2014 and construction to begin in April 2015. That would put a potential opening date sometime in July 2016.

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.