East Boston Public Library | Boston, MA
The East Boston Branch of the Boston Public Library was the first municipally funded branch library in the United States. The new 15,000 square feet building will serve the entire community with more than double the combined public space of the two branches previously operating in East Boston.
Landworks Studio worked with William Rawn Associates, Architects to design a landscape for the new building that would provide a visual and experiential transition, a threshold between the library and Bremen Street Park, as well as between the library and Bremen Street. The main feature is the Reading Porch, a 20’ wide plinth that visually and programmatically extends the interior of the library outdoors, overlooking the park, and providing an outdoor space for library patrons.
Client: Public Facilities Department – City of Boston
Architect: William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc.
Civil Engineer: Stantec
MEP Engineer: Cosentini Associates
Signage/Graphic Design: Arrowstreet, Inc.
Awards (with William Rawn Associates Architects): 2014 & 2015 Harleston Parker People's Choice Award, 2016 USGBC LEED Gold Award, 2017 National AIA/ALA Library Building Award, 2017 AIA New England Design Merit Award
Striving to make the library an essential part of the community, the landscape connects the Reading Porch, Bremen Street Park, and Bremen Street with several design elements, including a threshold zone formed of a band of grasses, stone paver paths, and pre-cast concrete unit pavers (highlighting world cities from which East Boston residents hail) to create a composition to provide a threshold to the Park; a new crosswalk over Bremen Street; and an educational Stormwater Garden with interpretive signage to raise awareness of rainwater ecology; and a small Viewing Garden, located directly outside the Community Room, serves as an extension of the Streetscape. The landscape design serves as a working model of the ecological principles imparts to the East Boston community: stormwater is managed on the site by planted swale that receives water sheeting off of the parking lot and its associated pedestrian walkway.