Paul Cummins Library - Crossroads School

Set among an assortment of converted warehouses and industrial structures, the Paul Cummins Library is an offering to an alternative campus that symbolizes the Library's greater importance within the learning environment.

The facility is contained by a series of folded planes of exterior blue plaster, which descend in elevation along a busy urban street down to the pedestrian alley of the campus.

The two-story periodical reading room penetrates into the "campus quad" (an alley), and supports a steel canopy that offers a shaded gathering place and leads into the double height entry volume. Vibrant yellow exposed structural steel framing supports the structure and inclined wall.

Book stacks and administrative support facilities are positioned under flanking low roofs that serve reading and study areas. They are centrally located within a two-story volume vaulting toward north-facing clerestory windows. The windows allow natural lighting during the day and save energy.