Selden, New York

Our staff renovated and expanded two facilities for Middle Country Public Library: the Main Library in Centereach and the Selden Cultural Center. The Selden Cultural Center serves as both a library branch and as a community center with an auditorium and community meeting rooms.

Our needs assessment and planning and programming study identified the need for an addition to the Cultural Center. Documents, plans and images for a referendum were presented and a positive vote by the community took place. Throughout the planning and design phases there was extensive community and library staff interaction.

The expanded building provides a full-service library branch, including a new multi-level reading and stack space; new entry, lobby, and circulation desks; new reading garden; renovated computer classroom and meeting rooms; and an 198-seat auditorium.

The center addresses the community’s needs at all ages. It features a comprehensive homework center for middle-grade and high school students, with a group study room, a tutoring room, and computers, as well as a new 1,400-square-foot teen resource center; It also provides a Family Place, an interactive, drop-in learning space for families and young children including a new early childhood room (ECR). For seniors, the design incorporates a new area, Senior Scene, to meet the needs of senior citizens.

CLIENT: Middle Country Public Library
COMPLETION: 2002
SIZE: 15,000 s.f. existing; 14,000 s.f. addition
COST: $5.3 million