New Castle County, Delaware
Hockessin Public Library Additions & Improvements
The expansion at Hockessin Public Library embraces the landscape and captures scenic views to the county park beyond. This gesture to the park is reinforced by a floating cantilevered glass pavilion which houses the Children’s Collection and allows a flood plain to pass beneath.
The simplicity of the design promotes a very clear internal organization while making clean connections to the existing library structure. The renovation and addition to this facility was a joint collaboration between StudioJAED and ikon.5 architects. Rapid residential growth in the area made this fairly new library far too small, and poor circulation patterns demanded too much staff. The team focused on increasing the size of the library while proportionally decreasing staff requirements.
The design solution involved the cantilevered structure over the flood plain, which allowed economical reuse of many of the existing elements, and at the same time provide greater circulation. Additional green elements included: day light harvesting, occupancy sensors, low water consumption plumbing fixtures and high efficiency heating ventilation and air conditioning systems.