[Atlanta] Buckhead Library - Scogin Elam

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Designed by Scogin Elam Architects...This building is kind of lost within its context... It is in the Buckhead area adjacent to the "night life" and "night clubs". But yet during the day there is something different about the building that would catch your eye if you were to drive by it...

The Buckhead library was built in the late 80's... here is the description of the building from Scogin Elam Architects webpage...

The Buckhead Branch Library is a 22,000 square foot neighborhood facility located in a unique nouveau riche strip of Atlanta. The Buckhead neighborhood is the foreground of an cultural shift where the boutique succeeds the pool hall. The neighborhood is a rupture, showing signs of a downtown with growing pains.

The existing Ida Williams Branch was a parking meter... past expired... unable to communicate with speed and clarity. The function of today's public library: a locus for knowledge within a civic landscape bounded by mobile sprawl and strip shopping.

The particular site is atop a crest that commands a spectacular view of downtown Atlanta. The new building consumes the large narrow portion of the site in-between the distinct frontages while perching itself in full view towards downtown. An array of canopies intensifies the pedestrian scale relationships along Buckhead Avenue and deposits the reader at the helm of the spectator city, air-conditioned and detached.

The plan organization is linear: sidewalk, entry sequence, circulation desk, reference and main reading room. Children's services, public meeting room and periodicals are located in "saddle bags" off the main linear circulation path.

Building materials and systems include structural steel frame, painted metal roofing, slate siding, and cast-in-place concrete foundation walls.

Here are some links about the library:

Links:

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/a.../buckhead.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wizum/s...7594291885540/

http://www.af.public.lib.ga.us/buckhead_branch.html

http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/...eadlibrary.htm

http://www.msmearch.com/libraries/buckhead.html

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As I mentioned above the Buckhead library is located in the heart of Buckhead on Buckhead Ave and Pharr Road about a block off of Peachtree Street...

You can take Atlanta's rail system to the lenox station and then catch a cab to the area (its just a bit far of a walk)... The library is about a 10 minute drive from the downtown area...

Here is an image showing the relationship of the library from downtown and the rail system...

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Here is a Google Earth snapshot of the library...

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and here is the KMZ file for the library...

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This first shot is from Buckhead Ave. and the front of the library... the Front is basically comprised of a series of canopy stuctures that reach out for a drive/drop off for cars and to the pedestrians that park to either side of the library.

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Another shot from Buckhead Ave. but from the left of the front... notice how the canopy structures create layering of mass and frame along the front... This building would be very boring without this layering...

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Here is the canopy from the left side parking area...

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here is the canopy from the right side... what is cool about the canopy is its sculptural quality... it isn't symetrical and works as a composition...

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here is one more shot of the rightside canopy but from behind it looking toward the front of the site...

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and here is one more shot from under the canopy...