Sammamish is in a continuous expansion this is why the library had to be relocated to a bigger place within the Sammamish Commons. The new location is next to the Civic Plaza edge, in the south. The plaza is surrounded by interesting glazing and programmatic elements like a cyber bar,a teen area and a meeting room.
The visitors are welcomed to stop by and to admire the beautiful landscape. The library has a sustainable design and in order to make the area more spacious and to receive natural light the main reading and stack area has skylights and clerestories made of translucent glazing that draws the sunlight in and that seems to open the space.
The area ends with a reading room that offers the view of the Olympic Peninsula and the Seattle skyline. The reading room is very cozy since it hosts a fireplace that works on glass and it does have an interesting structure made in concrete finish and having glass enclosure.
The dominating material used is wood and it can be found in the lobby ,meeting room and ceiling and lower column enclosures. There is also a children`s area that offers view of the new eastern lawn-that also has a refloxology path,peculiar native plantings not to mention a beautiful grove that has only birch trees.
The parking is done underground,not to burden in any way the surroundings or the site and an elevator connects the parking lot with the library floor.Talking about sustainable design,the lower roof of the library works on low maintenance since the water runoff accesses the site with the use of the pervious surface parking and not to mention an on-site rain garden.
The building is insulated making it decrease the heat gain and loss and this highlights the use of solar gain and daylighting with the use of the translucent elements that can be found in the main reading and stack area.Another ingenious element was the addition of a mechanically assisted ventilation system that is attached to a radiant slab that control the cooling and heating of the building.
