Residents Have Say on New East Roswell Library

Roswell residents don’t want a “spaceship” or “another red brick building” sitting on the corner of Fouts and Holcomb Bridge roads. They want something special. They want the soon-to-be-built East Roswell library to convey the uniqueness of the city, according to attendees of last night’s public input session.

Thanks to a passed 2008 bond referendum, libraries will be springing up all over the metro-Atlanta area within the next several years. And because of some longtime campaigning by local residents, three North Fulton libraries are outlined – including a 15,000 sq. ft. library in East Roswell on city-donated land just in front of East Roswell Park.

Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System leaders had a good-sized crowd on Thursday night at the first of three North Fulton public input sessions, during which they asked: “What is your vision for the new library?”

Local residents and library advocates were more than happy to respond, giving library staffers specific thoughts and ideas for their new library.

“We would like your input to be the reason the library is in the shape it’s in,” said Roy Kenski, project manager with Heery/Russell, which will be overseeing Phase I of the library system’s initiative.

With the change in the way people are receiving information during this electronic age, the ideal library will include a mix of print and digital. Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System Director John Szabo told the crowd that he hoped the new library would become the “living room of the community.”

One of the group’s strongest sentiments was to push for a larger library, since the size of the new library would fall between the current 20,000 sq. ft. of Roswell and the 10,000 sq ft of Alpharetta libraries. However, while the two to five acres of land donated by the city to the county for use as a library might be able to handle more than 15,000 sq ft, current budgets allotted by the bond won’t.

But that doesn’t mean the architect can’t be told to design the new library with the idea that it might be expanded later, said library representatives.

Another prominent push by the group was to downplay parking and play up the natural elements that surround the area, such as the Chattahoochee River and woodlands by connecting the library to nature pathways. A show-of-hands poll at the meeting showed that approximately 50 percent of those in attendance would be traveling to the new library via walking or riding bicycles.

One resident spoke about her desire to see a reversal from the clichéd dim library interior by making the new library feel bright and airy with a lot of natural light. Belinda Morrow, sustainability project manager for the library system, responded that new environmentally friendly building aspects being used on the facility would allow them to do that.

Other suggestions included a potential café space, a used bookstore, meeting rooms, quiet reading rooms, workshop space, a fun children’s section, a separate teen section, family seating, better-than-typical library bathrooms, inclusion of an outdoor reading and play space, as well as bike racks and pathway connectivity.

A former New York resident spoke of adding an acoustic room where budding musicians would be able to practice or play, unheard by those outside the room. Another resident asked that talented local artists would be able to display their art and potentially even sell it.

Excited about the future, a half-joking request that the East Roswell library – which is yet to be officially named – would be the first built as part of the system’s Phase I projects.

The project managers hope to hire an architect in May and be able to show a potential design - based upon Thursday’s feedback  - to residents during the fall.  The new library will tentatively open in 2013.