Slover Library
Norfolk, VA
The Slover Library A State-of-The-Art Library Complex and the Centerpiece of a Revitalized Downtown Norfolk
Introduction After more than six years of planning and development, the City of Norfolk opened the new Slover Library — designed by Newman Architects — on January 9, 2015. Offering the most advanced technology, the 138,000 square foot complex redefines how a public library is used, providing a civic space for creativity, collaboration, and research.
Seaboard Building c. 1930
Can the old and young, the immigrant and the established, find in the heart of Norfolk a place which evokes their common humanity and purpose: to enrich their lives with the knowledge of human experience? Can this library, a place of old and new architecture with diversity of form, light, and space, evoke wonder and delight by embracing timeless human traits of memory and imagination, curiosity and ceremony, discovery and ritual, conflict and resolution, and a love and need for learning by bringing together Norfolk’s citizens? Can the Slover Library help us renew our civil society?
A combined public and private endeavor, the $65 million building was made possible by a $40 million gift from Frank and Jane Batten and a $21 million contribution from the City. The project led to the creation of the Slover Foundation, which contributed an additional $4 million to the initial construction. The library is named in honor of Colonel Samuel L. Slover, a former Mayor of Norfolk and uncle of Frank Batten, Sr. About Slover Library Slover Library, located at 235 E. Plume Street in Norfolk, Virginia, offers classes and events, computers, internet access, interactive displays, and a digital media studio, as well as a street level cafe. Collections include adult fiction and non-fiction, a children’s library and learning center, and a casual teen center with access to computers, gaming, and study rooms. Additionally, the community can access high-tech civic meeting rooms and the important Sargeant Memorial Local History and Genealogy Collection. The building is pursuing LEED Silver certification and is among the country’s most technologically advanced libraries. More information is available at www.sloverlibrary.com.
Subject Location Architect Photographs Project Page
Esto Photographics Inc 222 Valley Place Mamaroneck NY 10543 914 698-4060 www.esto.com
Slover Library Norfolk VA Newman Š Peter Aaron/Esto 2014A76 Part 1 6 of 19 PRELIMINARY
Downtown Norfolk revitalization plan, from the Nauticus to Harbor Park Stadium
Center of Downtown Revival Under the guidance of urban planner Ray Gindroz and Urban Design Associates, Norfolk has aggressively engaged in rebuilding its downtown since the 1990s. The City has built new infrastructure and vibrant mixed-use developments, as well as a new light rail system. Slover Library was conceived as the anchor of a new downtown district adjacent to the MacArthur light rail station. Blending the best of contemporary library resources and services with new and innovative space design, Slover Library is a vital resource for early literacy, community learning, leading-edge information technology, and civic engagement.
The result is a “Library Precinct” in which all of the uses are connected by congenial public spaces. The central focus of this precinct is a combination of the Library and MacArthur Square. The Library appears to be “on the square” even though it is on a side street. - Ray Gindroz
View of Slover Library from MacArthur light rail station
New JE Press Letterpress Studio
Restored Seaboard faรงade with new library tower in background
“The 21st century public library has to adapt to the age of e-books and online content. No longer is it defined as a repository of books, but more as a community anchor to encourage civic engagement. We designed Slover Library to respond to the growth of Norfolk and to create a space that welcomes all of its residents, and learners of all ages.” - Herbert S. Newman
Blending the Old with the New The new Slover Library is a restoration of the 115-yearold Seaboard building (formerly the City Post Office, Federal District Court, and City Hall, before becoming home to Norfolk’s main library in 2009), a new sevenstory glass walled addition, and a renovation of an adjacent commercial building, the Selden Arcade. The Seaboard’s interior cortile, a central court surrounded by an arcade and a ring of enclosed rooms, is mirrored in the design of the glass addition. The western wall of the Seaboard has been opened to the new space, making its interior accessible to library patrons, while remaining visually connected to the outdoors through the new addition. Natural light weaves through the material of the new building to unite an interior public realm with the outdoor public realm of the city. The new Slover Library embodies the principal roles of today’s library: as a storehouse for the region’s history and artifacts, as a portal to digital access, and as a community gathering place.
Slover Library reflects a relationship between the old and new: the solidity of the restored masonry Seaboard and a transparent and inviting addition. The spaces are structured to link to each other through ‘the Forum’, a three-story atrium at its center. Visitors can see the library contents upon entering the building and elect to explore the collection and engage in the programs. The Library is a series of spaces and activities displayed off this central space. A hub for exchange and interchange, Slover Library is a town in miniature, with the Forum serving as its town square. As one approaches Slover Library from the MacArthur light rail station, the new construction emerges from behind the Seaboard. The addition’s incremental ascending building blocks culminate at the top with a sculpture suggesting an opening book.
“Let us save what remains: not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident.� - Thomas Jefferson
First Floor Plan
Forum interior
Ornament From the project’s inception, Newman Architects worked with New Haven-based sculptor, Kent Bloomer, to develop a system of ornament that is an integral, organic part of the architectural whole. Bloomer’s ornament amplifies three distinct points of the building: the ceiling of the Forum, the front entrance, and the third floor terrace of the loggia. The Forum, with its distinctive leafy aluminum canopy, reinforces the main entry and lobby as a place of connection. The foliation of the ceiling is comprised of over 1,000 elements die stamped and hand-hammered into an abstract botanical form. The abstract leafage is picked up again on the loggia, which serves as an accessible outdoor porch for the public. The ornament on the façade of the entrance departs from the botanical schematic. The forms themselves, while abstract, are reminiscent of the shapes of a sail. They bring the diagonal entrance wall alive, creating a wave action that connects the Seaboard to the new structure.
Right: Forum skylight with custom metal screen
Main entrance to Forum
“We are at a point now where some of us are beginning to turn the situation around, from thinking of ornament as in the past, and seeing it as something in the future. We are at a new beginning.�
- Kent Bloomer
Forum and Seaboard connection Forum and Seaboard connection
The Sargeant Memorial Collection Comes Home The Sargeant Memorial Collection is a rich archive of regional history and genealogy. Its holdings include some of the very first documents after the European settlement in the new world. The Seaboard building, where the collection resides, has been renovated with state-of-the-art archive spaces for the gathering and preservation of this rare resource. The upper level of the Seaboard is the site of a new digital interface to access the collection. Built as a custom software application, the room is filled with large-scale touch panels to facilitate the interactive search and exploration of the collection’s holdings.
Holiday parcel rush at Seaboard Post Office
Design model exploring connections between old and new
Right: Historic Seaboard vestibule
Youth Library
MEETING
STUDY HALL/GAMING
NON-FICTION/STUDY
NON-FICTION/STUDY
SARGEANT MEMORIAL COLLECTION
YOUTH LIBRARY
FORUM
POPULAR LIBRARY
POPULAR LIBRARY BISTRO
COMPUTING/STUDY
The sixth floor of the Library includes three large meeting rooms, the largest of which (shown at right) has a capacity of 250 people. The rooms are designed to flexibly accommodate a wide range of programming and community engagement.
Awards: AIA / ALA Library Building Award, 2015 APWA Mid-Atlantic Project of the Year; Structures, 2015 AIA CT Honor Award, 2018
Client: Slover Library - City of Norfolk, Virginia Architect: Newman Architects in association with Tymoff & Moss, Norfolk, VA General Contractor: Archer Western, Chicago, IL Our Consultants: Ornament: Kent Bloomer Studio, New Haven, CT Urban Designer: Urban Design Associates, Ray Gindroz, Pittsburgh, PA Technology Programmer: The Sextant Group, Pittsburgh, PA Library Programmer : Providence Associates, Cottonwood, AZ MEP Engineering: PACE Collaborative, Virginia Beach, VA Lighting Designer: Patrick Quigley Associates, Torrance, CA Structural Engineer: Stroud, Pence and Associates, Virginia Beach, VA Civil Engineering: Timmons Group, Virginia Beach, VA Historic Preservation: Commonwealth Preservation Group, Norfolk, VA Landscape Architecture: Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, Alexandria, VA Preservation Consultant: Commonwealth Preservation Group; Norfolk, VA Elevator Consultants: Lerch Bates, Bowie, MD Geotechnical: Schnabel Engineering, Newport News, VA Signage: Strong Cohen Graphic Designers, New Haven, CT Envelope: Leavitt Associates, Norfolk, VA Food Service: McFarland Kistler, Pittsburgh, PA Preconstruction Services: Turner Construction, Virginia Beach, VA Photos courtesy of : Peter Aaron/Esto Š2014 Graham Hebel, Newman Architects Historic photos courtesy of the City of Norfolk
Slover’s Creative Team Newman Architects Newman Architects, PC is a collaborative design firm led by Herbert S. Newman, Joseph Schiffer, Richard Munday, Peter Newman, Mavis Terry, and José A. Hernández. The firm has offices in New Haven, Connecticut, and Washington, DC. Over half a century, Newman has built a national reputation for the design of new buildings and the renovation and restoration of existing buildings. These projects include public and private schools, libraries, civic and community buildings, academic buildings multi-tenant housing, private residences, offices, athletic buildings, churches, and synagogues. Newman Architects has received more than 130 design excellence awards, including awards from the American Institute of Architects, The Boston Society of Architects, and the Interior Design Institute. In 1995, Herb Newman received the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture, a lifetime achievement award bestowed by the American Institute of Architects. More information is available at www.newmanarchitects.com. Raymond L. Gindroz, Co-founder and Principal Emeritus of Urban Design Associates Raymond L. Gindroz pioneered the development of participatory planning processes for neighborhoods, downtowns and regional plans. He is an internationally recognized advocate and veteran practitioner who has helped revitalize cities by transforming inner city neighborhoods and distressed public housing projects into traditional mixed-income neighborhoods and by working with downtowns to attract new and diverse development. He is co-founder and principal emeritus of Urban Design Associates, a Pittsburgh firm established in 1964. Gindroz taught urban design at Yale for more than two decades and is a popular speaker whose books include “The Urban Design Handbook” and “The Place of Dwelling.” Bloomer Studio Kent Bloomer is the principal and founder of the Bloomer Studio, and has been its chief designer since 1965. His sculpture has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT, and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, as well as other museums and galleries. His work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, CT and the Carnegie Museum of Art. His large-scale projects have won state and national awards from the American Institute of Architects. Bloomer’s most recent projects include a foliated trellis for the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, large roof sculptures on the Harold Washington Library in Chicago an aluminum horse, wings and trellis for the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Kearney, Neb, and a decorative frieze for the Nashville Public Library.
“Newman Architects’ design melds three generations of architectural styles into one beautifully appointed building. Not only will Slover engage and delight the public, but it represents Norfolk’s history as well as its future.” - Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim
300 York Street New Haven, CT 06511 203.772.1990 1054 31st Street NW, Suite 140 Washington, DC 20007 202.525.2726 newmanarchitects.com