FLEET LIBRARY ACCOLADES
· The American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association have selected the library as a winner of the 2007 AIA/ALA Library Building Awards, which were presented in June at the annual ALA conference in Washington, DC. The award celebrates “the finest examples of library design by architects licensed in the US.”
· The library was awarded “Design Distinction” in the
Environments Category of the 2007 Annual Design Review of I.D.
magazine and is featured in the July/August issue.
In January 2007 the Providence Preservation Society presented RISD with its 2006 Adaptive Reuse/Material Conservation/New Design/Institutional Award for “the creative adaptation” and “outstanding new design” of the library.
With the opening of the Fleet Library at RISD in fall 2006, both the college and the region have gained an important new resource of 130,000 volumes and 685,000 image holdings focused on art, architecture and design. The stunning renovation of this former bank building at 15 Westminster Street is one of the tangible outcomes of RISD’s Future by Design capital campaign, which ran from 1998-2006 and was one of the largest fundraising efforts ever undertaken by a college of art and design. When the campaign closed on June 30, 2006, it had raising $87.7 million in support of new initiatives at RISD, including the addition of this vastly expanded and much more accessible library.
The new facility occupies the first two floors of a 12-story building that was renovated in 2005 to house 500 RISD students (approximately 22% of its student population) on the upper floors. Office dA, an architectural and design firm in Boston, is responsible for the innovative redesign of the early-20th-century banking hall, balcony and second floor for library usage. The completion of their work fulfills RISD vision for the entire building as a living/learning complex known as 15 West — a well-conceived model of adaptive reuse and mixed-use programming.
Located on the riverfront in downtown Providence, 15 West furthers RISD’s commitment to the revitalization of the city’s center. Its downtown location, along with the size of the new library (55,000 square feet or four times that of its predecessor on Benefit Street), allows for increased public access for scholarly research.
Among the many advantages of the new library, which is named in recognition of FleetBoston Financial Corporation’s donation of the space in February 2002, are:
· the maximization of space available for program with the addition of two versatile structures built within the banking hall
1) a study pavilion, which offers a variety of work spaces and options, from individual study carrels to rooms for small group study and a large stepped platform for seating
2) a circulation center, which offers a convenient area for check-out, books on reserve and so forth, houses two staff offices and accommodates shelving and computer workstations of various heights around the periphery
· a comfortable “living room” lounge area in the main reading room where students and others can relax and exchange ideas
· the consolidation of a collection previously stored at four separate sites into a single facility with seating for more than 200 in the main reading room alone
· the van Beuren Periodicals Reading Balcony, providing a pleasant space for browsing through the library’s 400 periodicals subscriptions devoted to art, design and culture
· open stacks displaying most of the circulating collection (90% versus 65% in the previous library)
· the Graham Visual Resources Center, with 685,000 holdings and dedicated viewing rooms
· an Archives and Special Collections Reading Room where visitors can fully explore everything these non-circulating collections have to offer
· the Dale Artists’ Books Reading Room, the first dedicated space for the study and storage of this exceptional collection of 1,200 limited-edition books, objects and zines
· easy access to food and beverages in the appealing new Portfolio Café across the foyer
>> read a press release about the FleetBoston Financial gift
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