Wilton Library
The Wilton Library has served its community since 1895 from a variety of facilities, evolving from an initial collection in the home of Wilton’s postmaster to increasingly larger accommodations in the center of town. In 1973, the Wilton Library Association hired modernist architect Eliot Noyes to design a new home for the collection that had once again outgrown its home, and the precursor to our current project took place, enlarging the library to a roomy 18,000 square feet in 1975. Strong clean lines, an open floor plan, great expanses of glass, natural materials, and a sense of bringing the outside indoors were hallmarks of the modernist school, and Noyes’ articulation made the library something of a landmark in the heart of Wilton Center.
A "Future Committee" of trustees, staff and community members determined in 2000 that yet another expansions was called for, both to house a collection that had continued to grow and also to satisfy the changing needs of library users. The committee used focus groups, print and electronic surveys, and the help of outside consultants to formulate a strategic plan and building program in 2001. The resulting vision of expansion and renovation that would respect the library’s modernist roots yet prepare it to serve well for decades into the future was brilliantly realized by the architectural firm Tai Soo Kim Partners. Their plan was responsive, dramatic and extremely functional.
More than 50,000 square feet of expanded and renovated space emerged—first on the drawing board and then on site over the period from July 2004 to March 2006. The new Wilton Library includes a drive-thru window for reserve pickup and drop off, an art gallery, six quiet study rooms governed by a reservation system, a computer lab for instruction and overflow Internet access, two wonderful interior courtyards, two large meeting rooms for public use, an acoustically separate room for teens adjacent to the teen librarian’s office, a fabulous new children’s library with its own rest rooms and flexible story time/crafts space with a movable wall, a huge basement big enough to house our book sorting and sales, and the crowning jewel of the project: an intimate, 150-seat performance space named the Brubeck Room after Wilton resident and jazz great Dave Brubeck and his talented and generous family. Dave’s son Chris, a well-known musician in his own right, served to help design the room, and it’s truly a "wow."
Remaining open throughout the project was a challenge in many respects, but it allowed staff and customers, donors and potential donors a front row seat as the community’s dreams were realized. Funding for the project was a challenge as well, particularly when steel and other material costs went through the roof in 2004, causing many similar projects in Connecticut and across the country to be cancelled or postponed. We secured a $4.8 million grant from the Town of Wilton and a $500,000 grant from the State of Connecticut, but the remaining $5.7 million was raised privately, despite the augury of a feasibility study that $3.2 million was about the limit for giving potential on this project. Clearly, the community rallied behind the project in a spectacular way, responding to the words of a former library board president, Virginia Adams in 1973 on the eve of the last expansion: "The library speaks a great deal about the community it serves." Those words resonated throughout our capital campaign and continue to inspire us as the community absorbs the higher operating costs of the expanded building. We all are aware that the new library is more than windows and walls and doors and floors; it is a collection of wonderful spaces that come alive with the new programs, collections and services we are now able to offer (with adequate staffing and technology to sustain them), fulfilling the promise made to the community when we began assessing needs five years ago. For more information, visit our website at www.wiltonlibrary.org.
The Wilton Library is the winner of the 2008 Excellence in Public Library Architecture Award for libraries in excess of 18,000 sq. ft. The award will be presented during CLA’s Annual Conference in April. This article first appeared in the May 2006 edition of Connecticut Libraries.
Reported by: Kathy Leeds
Posted: 04.01.2008