Upgrading Spaces: Magazine Features D.H. Hill

The renovation of D. H. Hill Library’s west wing won recognition in multiple categories from Library Design Showcase 2012.

The annual review by American Libraries magazine highlights the American Library Association’s picks for best new and renovated facilities. The west wing renovation will also be featured in the March/April print edition of the magazine and its spring digital supplement.

Over the past two years, the Libraries transformed an area that formerly housed print periodicals into a vibrant collaboration and study area with over 13,600 square feet of space.

The renovation features bold furnishings, abundant natural light, open sight lines and easy access to digital technologies.  The project has also allowed experimentation with the kinds of creative spaces, furnishings and technologies that will part of the university’s new James B. Hunt Jr. Library, scheduled to open in early 2013.

The NCSU Libraries’ spaces were honored in three design showcase categories: Outdoor Library, Technology Enabled Spaces and Collaborative Learning.

• The Technology Sandbox gives students and faculty a place to work with large-scale, multi-touch display and gesture-based computing technologies. The space includes a variety of interactive, multi-touch tables, gaming stations and whiteboards.
• The Terrace now provides an outdoor study area with table seating for 70, colorful lounge chairs and convenient power outlets. Originally built as the student union in 1954, the area had been vacant for decades before its transformation.
  
• The Silent Reading Room, which once held print periodicals, now provides 70 quiet seats for individual study. This room is defined by a new interior glass wall and rows of white, marble-topped tables.  New outlets in the glass wall and new floor boxes provide access to power.  The original exterior glass wall was replaced with new, energy-efficient glazing, allowing views across the campus’s central quad.