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Fountaindale Public Library
Bolingbrook, Illinois
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Fountaindale Public Library
New "Green" Library Befits Park Setting
 Providing
a new main library facility with ample space to serve the many needs
of the community, while fitting into an otherwise residential area,
was the challenge faced by the architects for this project. The
new $25-million, three-story 96,000 s.f. facility with an additional
13,000 s.f. of basement space is the result. The site plan and building
footprint are organized to create a presence for the library along
the primary access, Briarcliff Road, while maximizing views of the
existing park in which it is being constructed. The size of the
floor plates approach the maximum size recommended by library planners
with proportions that will provide flexibility for the future. Plans
feature green roofs that further reinforce a connection with the
building’s park setting. The building has been designed to
achieved a prestigious LEED 2.2 Gold Certification.
The planning for the building began as with any other, with rectangular
floor plates. As the process evolved pieces of the floors were carved
away to provide a less formal form with the result that no two floors
in the building have the same footprint and the total three-dimensional
volume becomes a very organic element that fits well into the park
setting.
Given the varieties in the floor plates and the complexities of
the shapes, reinforced concrete proved to be an ideal structural
system. Typical interior bays measuring 24’-6” x 30’-0”
resulted in the selection of a two-way flat slab system with capitals
at the interior columns. The use of the concrete floor system also
helped to minimize the overall structure depth which was critical
in controlling the overall height of the building. The use of high
strength concrete made it possible to limit maximum interior column
size 24” x 24”.
The exterior wall system chosen included a masonry veneer with
light gauge stud backup construction. The use of downturned beams
at the perimeter of the floor plates allowed for the installation
of a continuous shelf angle at each floor to support the masonry
veneer at the level of the window heads. The beams also helped to
minimize the deflections in the slab, a critical consideration in
supporting the masonry veneer.
The concrete slab system easily accommodated the use of the selected
green roof system. The sloping concrete slab of the main roof with
an upturned curb at the perimeter proved ideal for directing the
required drainage to interior downspouts. In conjunction with relatively
slender circular concrete columns along the perimeter curtain wall
the system provides for very dramatic stack spaces for the libraries
materials.
In order to provide for resistance to lateral wind and seismic
forces it was decided to include a limited number of cast-in-place
concrete shear walls at the elevator shafts and stairwells. The
combination frame/shear wall structure proved to be a very efficient
and economical lateral load system.
The building is supported by conventional spread footing foundations.
At the ground level the floor slabs are conventional slab on grade
construction with the exception that in place of traditional welded
wire fabric to control random shrinkage cracking, the concrete mixes
include micro-fiber reinforcement.
The building is currently under construction with completion anticipated
in early summer of 2011.
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