New library aims to return building to its roots

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Seven-year-old Shawn Taylor looked out from the indoor balcony above the new Ridgefield Library’s ground floor “commons areas” last week during a tour of the building, which is scheduled for a grand opening May 9.

Light and air, big open rooms, and flexible space are the guiding principles of the $20-million new Ridgefield library building.

With a grand opening planned in a little over a month — and some use of the new building likely to start before then — Library Director Chris Nolan, Assistant Library Director Mary Rindfleisch and the owner’s representative on the new library construction project, Robert Cavello, led a small tour of the new library, which is also the old library, Tuesday afternoon.

“We’ve kept the 1903 Morris building,” Mr. Cavello said. “Additions in the 50s, 70s and 80s were peeled away.”

The ornate front reading rooms on either side of the 1903 building’s entrance will house special collections, art and photography books, poetry, and drama. The old rooms lead back into the top floor of a new three-story structure.

The third level will house the main adult collection — fiction, nonfiction, etc. — and a new teen room, the first the library has had for middle and high school students.

“They have a whole different work style,” Ms. Rindfleisch said. “Not that they’re not working, they’re just louder about it.”

At the back of the new building, the top floor halts short of the wall, creating an indoor balcony overlooking a “commons areas” — a space two stories high with glass walls facing south at Prospect Street and east at what will be a terrace connecting to the Prospector Theater, next door.

Below, on the middle or ground floor, the commons area will include a kiosk and quick checkout of “grab and go” items — DVDs, music CDs, video games — and a few café tables.

“We have no intention of providing food service, or beverage service,” Ms. Nolan said. “We would like to provide an area where people could enjoy those, without leaving the library.”

This middle level will house the children’s library with stacks, study rooms, some children’s program rooms, and a children’s service desk.

The lower level will include a program room that can be separated into two areas — one for “performance” events, with a grand piano, the other set up for lectures.

There’ll be what Ms. Nolan and Ms. Rindfleisch described as a “staging kitchen” where caterers could set up.

“We’ve already had community groups approach us about having an annual luncheon,” Ms. Rindfleisch said.

Mr. Coffin, the library board chairman and also a local architect — though not the designer of the building — said Tuesday night that he is very happy with it.

“I’m thrilled, obviously,” he said. “I think everybody kind of thinks the same thing: It’s been a long time in the making, we’ve done a ton of planning and we’ve gone back to the drawing board a couple of times, but I think we really have gotten the right building for the future.

“And I think it really fits in the downtown and it’s going to be something people are going to love for years to come.”