Midterms!

Midterm reviews were very informative; instead of having a formal review we broke into two sets of groups (one with peers with other sites, and one with peers with our site) and this was incredibly helpful at this point in the design stage. Instead of having outside critics with only a vague insight into our project we were able to receive feedback from people who were as familiar with our project as we were. My peers were quite good at calling out some of the issues I was having with the library.

One issue that came up with both groups was that there was a lack of vantage for the librarian at the front desk. Because of the big hole in the middle of the space, the librarian can really only keep an eye on a quarter of the total space!

Another issue was that the book drop might be an issue since the library staff will have to keep going down the elevator to pick up books. I don’t think this will be resolved since I Don’t plan on moving the library to the ground floor, but moving the offices to next to the elevator is the next best option, so that once they are up on the library level they do not have to travel far.

A third issue was the ramp; some people had thought that the ramp was too long and outstretched to be a successful and pleasant space.

The organization of the library was an issue as well; my peers thought that it was organized a little haphazardly, and that it seemed a little random (which it was!). I was trying too hard to make it a dynamic space and have a mix of library + community center that I just scrambled the program into where it would fit. It didn’t work out very well, and I ended up with a lot of bottleneck instances, where people would be stuck in a tiny 10ft hallway for some 60 feet. A lot of these issues are from the shape of the building; there is only enough room for so much program in that wide a space!

The parti diagrams (a la BIG) were thought to have concentrated too much on the shading commuters aspect, and not enough on the public space it was defining and how it was being defined. I need to include where the shape of the building is from, as well.

Taking all the new critique into account I am rethinking the feasibility of the donut-shaped plan; I will work with it over the weekend but will have to let it go if it does not end up working out.