Perkins & Will

Sammamish Library

Sammamish Library
Perkins + Will

SAMMAMISH LIBRARY

Perkins+Will

ARCHITECTS
Perkins&Will 

LOCATION
Sammamish, WA, USA

CATEGORY
Library

CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Coughlin Porter Lundeen

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Nakano Associates

SPACE PLANNING
Design Perspectives

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
Sparling

LIGHTING
Candela

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Stantec

CLIENT
King County Library System

COST ESTIMATING
Davis Langdon

CONTRACTOR
Sierra Construction

ACOUSTICAL
Yantis

AREA
20000.0 ft2

PROJECT YEAR
2010

Text description provided by architect.

To accommodate the growing Sammamish community, the King County Library System commissioned a new 20,000 sf library that is located on the south edge of the City’s new Civic Plaza. Large expanses of glazing and active programmatic elements such as the meeting room, cyber bar, and teen area overlook the plaza.

Sammamish Library
Perkins + Will
Sammamish Library
Perkins + Will

The library's main reading room and stacks contain skylights and clerestories of translucent and clear vision glazing to create a warm and inviting space. The central reading space terminates in a great reading room that draws people to the western edge with views to the Sammamish Commons nature preserve, Olympic Peninsula, and Seattle skyline.

A large fireplace with an architectural concrete finish provides an internal focus and gathering point that balances the views to the west. Wood clad elements mark a progression through the library, beginning at the entry lobby.

It will continuing through the space to wrap the interior of the meeting room and the primary columns in the central space. The children’s area overlooks the new eastern lawn which includes a reflexology path, native plantings, and a grove of birch trees.

Sammamish Library
Perkins + Will
Sammamish Library
Perkins + Will

The site dimensions and the desire to create a long bounding edge to the City Plaza allowed the design team to investigate and implement an east to west building orientation.

This orientation also allowed for the public entry, staff entry, and limited surface parking to be placed between the building's south facade and property line while maintaining open spaces on the east and west sides of the building.

An L-shaped building mass containing the staff, stack and children's area program frames the south and east sides of the site. This opaque element is wrapped in a distinctive serrated Trespa clad rain screen panel system.

It is topped with a green roof planted with a geometric pattern of native sedums—visually tying it to the horizontal landscape planes of the site. Openings in this form are minimal with two exceptions

Sammamish Library
Perkins + Will
Sammamish Library
Perkins + Will

The corner entry and the children's area glazing with its seating window that engage the visiting patrons to the site. Sustainable design practices have been a top priority in the development of the site and the building.

In order to reduce the impervious surface on the site, parking is located under the building with an elevator to access the library floor. In addition, the library’s lower roof is a green roof with low maintenance native sedum planting to reduce the water runoff from the roof.

Water runoff from the exposed parking area will be infiltrated into the site through pervious surface parking and through an onsite rain garden. The new library will feature a highly insulated and efficient building envelope designed to reduce heat gain and loss while maximizing passive solar gain and daylighting.

Sammamish Library
Perkins + Will


Sammamish Library
plan
Sammamish Library
site plan

Perkins & Will
T +1 212 2517000 F +1 212 2517111
Perkins & Will
1250 Broadway Suite 200, New York, NY 10001, United States