The Georgetown Township Library in the Grand Rapids suburb of Jenison, Michigan is a new two story construction that was added as a linked structure to existing civic office buildings. A double-height, welcoming entrance atrium provides open circulation to an enclosed children’s section that includes a separate large program room to meet the needs of the growing children’s program. Other program on the first level include a young adult section, circulation desk and AV multimedia. The open atrium stair leads to the computer area, adult collection, open study, enclosed quiet reading room, main conference room and staff offices on the second floor. Both floors of the building have small group study rooms to provide breakout spaces for collaboration. The new building more than double the space of the old library. Kirkegaard provided room acoustics, noise and vibration control and sound isolation.
The Georgetown Township Library in the Grand Rapids suburb of Jenison, Michigan is a new two story construction that was added as a linked structure to existing civic office buildings. A double-height, welcoming entrance atrium provides open circulation to an enclosed children’s section that includes a separate large program room to meet the needs of the growing children’s program. Other program on the first level include a young adult section, circulation desk and AV multimedia. The open atrium stair leads to the computer area, adult collection, open study, enclosed quiet reading room, main conference room and staff offices on the second floor. Both floors of the building have small group study rooms to provide breakout spaces for collaboration. The new building more than double the space of the old library.
Kirkegaard worked closely with the design team on the finishes throughout the building. It was critical in the open atrium to provide strategically absorptive surfaces to control the buildup of sound. Both room finishes and background noise from mechanical systems were also carefully reviewed for the open collection areas, small enclosed rooms, and other public spaces to find the right balance between providing good speech clarity but also having some masking noise so the building wasn’t too silent. Demising partitions and doors at the group study rooms, children’s program room and quiet reading room were reviewed to reduce transmission of sound or crosstalk through ductwork between these spaces. An acoustic operable partition was incorporated between two group study rooms that can open for a larger presentation format or subdivide providing basic speech privacy between rooms.
