Boston Public Library – Roslindale Branch has received Editor’s Pick in the Libraries Category for Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design 2023!
Built in 1960’s, Roslindale Library needed a major renovation. It had served the community well but all aspects had become outdated. The gut renovation restored its best features while renovating it for the next fifty years. Renovation strategies included highlighting the dome and preserving its starburst sculpture with new semicircular open layout and the service desk below it, new starburst lighting array, wayfinding with supergraphics for a diverse, multiethnic community, a children’s area “book maze” and a new entry with colorful terra-cotta tiles. Preservation of over 90% of existing structure and envelope and new efficient MEP systems resulted in low embodied carbon and operational carbon. Celebrating its unique circular shaped domed space, the blue color wall continues the terra-cotta tiles at the entry and organizes all the program rooms behind it, including multipurpose community room and quiet reading room. An urban reading garden brings respite to a busy city block.
