Paul Cummins Library - Crossroads School

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.

Paul Cummins Library - Crossroads School

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.

Paul Cummins Library - Crossroads School


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.

Paul Cummins Library - Crossroads School

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.

Contact Us

Project
  • Paul Cummins Library - Crossroads School
Location
  • Santa Monica, CA
Client
  • Crossroads School
Year
  • 1996
Status
  • Complete
Size
  • 12,000 sf
Collaborators
  • Krismar Construction - General Contractor
    G.O. Dyer - Structural
    Pacific Mechanical Contractors Inc - Mechanical Engineer
    Pica & Sullivan Architects, Ltd. - Advising Campus Architect
    Zeller Electric Corp. - Electrical Engineer
Photographers
  • Erhard Pfeiffer
Awards
  • 1998 AIA|California Council, Merit Award
  • 1997 AIA Los Angeles, Merit Award
  • AIA|National (Architecture)
  • AIA|National American Library Association
  • LA Business Council
Publications
  • 2005 Vanity Fair