The Helen Plum Memorial Library needed major building repairs and decided it was more economical to build a new state-of-the-art facility to serve the local community. They hired ECT and Engberg Anderson Architects to design the two-story, 50,000 square foot library along Main Street. ECT utilized an integrated design approach to meet the varied expectations of the library board and staff, the Village, and the residents. To do this, ECT conducted a series of meetings with the people of the community at key points throughout the process.
The final library approach integrates a previously developed parcel on an important gateway into Lombard’s historic downtown. The stormwater plan significantly exceeds the requirements for managing stormwater on site using permeable paving and bioretention technologies. The development respects the surrounding neighborhood by moving the building away from adjacent residents and closer to the street, which also reinforces the pedestrian orientation of the business corridor. The design added numerous trees to the site, resulting in a net increase of 37 trees over the previous conditions.
To encourage a connection between the indoor and outdoor environments, the design added two plazas on alternate sides of the building accommodate visitors. An intimately scaled and fully enclosed plaza on the south side will be used for children’s programming. A larger open plaza on the north side offers spill-out for the building’s large community conference room and features a fire table to encourage seasonal use.
Construction began in 2021 and the library is on track to open to the public in early 2023.