Library as community

The Hampton Library in Bridgehampton is not your grandma’s library anymore. Gone are the days of imperious librarians with bluish-gray hair and horn-rimmed glasses instilling fear in the hearts of young children who dared to make noise or mistreat the musty smelling volumes that resided in the building’s cramped crevices.

With his addition and renovation to the Hampton Library, the architect, Lee Harris Pomeroy, a part-time Bridgehampton resident, has reinvigorated and expanded a beloved landmark to respond to 21st century needs while simultaneously respecting and paying homage to its storied past.

The library’s board of directors clearly wanted to retain the identity of the existing structure while expanding it to encompass the library’s function as a cultural mecca for the community. The requirements given to Mr. Pomeroy for the project included the expansion of the existing structure to provide additional space for books, reading areas, computer stations, a children’s reading room, space for young adults, staff offices and a much enlarged public meeting room suitable for a variety of events. Additionally, the backyard garden, with its iconic Norway maple tree as a focal point, would be incorporated into the design as an outdoor reading room with space usable for cultural programs such as the “Fridays at Five” lecture series, an annual event that is a staple of summer season. A walkway provided across the rear of the property also allows for neighborhood access to this garden.

There are many paradigms for libraries that can be seen locally throughout the East End: Amagansett has a traditional exterior on its new renovation/addition by architects Zwirko and Ortmann; Southampton’s new Rogers Memorial Library resembles a shingled McMansion; Sag Harbor is planning for a modern addition to its 1910 Augustus Allen neo-classical structure; East Hampton’s library received a very sympathetic, almost seamless addition by Robert A.M. Stern; while architect Gary Jacquemin is planning a modern addition linked to the Southold Free Library.

The issue of how to add on to a historic structure and still be a steward of its integrity can become thorny to say the least. At the Hampton Library, there was talk of building out significantly into the backyard, which would have impinged on its usefulness. Board member Marjorie Goldberg, a Bridgehampton-based architect, suggested instead that the basement be dug out and made usable.

Since the building had structural problems and needed a new foundation, the new basement, open to the rear, could provide much needed space without destroying the backyard. In the end, the building expansion to the rear came to a minimal 12 feet. Within these confines, Mr. Pomeroy was able to stitch together the old with the new by weaving the details of the original library into the visual language of the addition.

The existing library, circa 1877, on Main Street in Bridgehampton had been added on to over the years in a variety of regional vernacular styles. As a totality, the building, with its residential presence on what has otherwise become a main street of small-scale commercial structures, remains a reminder of a bygone era. Mr. Pomeroy, well aware of the importance of this historic façade to the community, did little more than remedial work to the street front.

A fresh coat of paint, consisting of a neutral, pale beige for the field color juxtaposed against white for the trim and belt courses, reveals historic detail that had been hidden away in an all-white façade for years. The shutters, painted in a slightly darker beige/green, offer a subtle contrast to an otherwise restrained palette.

The big surprise, however, is the way that the belt courses are wrapped around the sides of the structure and carried across the modern façade at the rear. From the street, the passerby would be hard-pressed to imagine the strikingly modern addition running parallel with and behind the original building. The second-story stacks, the two-level first floor reading area and the basement level children’s area, along with the 100-person meeting room, are all filled with light and air as they overlook the garden. The new wing succeeds in providing a glass wall to the outdoors, embracing its outdoor reading room and creating, according to Mr. Pomeroy, “the best public space for the celebration of books east of Bryant Park.”

On the interior, the entrance remains in the same location and opens on the right to the circulation desk opposite a two-sided fireplace flanking an intimate reading area. To the left is the portrait–filled meeting room containing an exposed ceiling truss, part of the original construction. The path from the entrance through to the main reading room is separated by a core housing two sets of stairs, an elevator, a bathroom, and a custodian closet.

This layering of space from street side to the modern addition, consistent throughout the building, represents the passage through history to the future. The ceiling truss in the meeting room inspired Mr. Pomeroy to create a scissor-trussed ceiling, spanning across the open two-story reading area and second-floor stacks, and using architectural vocabulary coherently to unite the old with the new.

A bridge from the first reading area connects the user directly to the backyard garden. Paintings from the library’s portrait collection, a reminder of the connection to history, also grace the second-floor balcony facing the reading area below.

This renovation/addition also addresses compliance with accessibility codes and technical upgrades to the physical plant along with state-of-the-art computer and information technology systems. Sustainability issues played a major part in the design. Energy consumption will be reduced since natural light supplied by the glass wall will obviate the need for artificial lighting. A new, geothermal heating and cooling system and natural ventilation through operable windows will also allow for more savings in energy usage.

With any board-driven project, an architect often has the task of bringing together divergent approaches and thinking. For the Hampton Library, Mr. Pomeroy has not only designed, in cohesive fashion, a particularly interesting solution for a difficult and complicated problem, but he has also bridged past and present to build within a building a community for the future.

Anne Surchin is an East End architect and writer.