New Orleans Public Libraries

Four public libraries—the East New Orleans Regional Library, Algiers Regional Library, Norman Mayer Library, and Robert E. Smith Library—replace branches that were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by Hurricane Katrina. They are anchors of a fourteen-branch library system that is heavily utilized and valued by underserved populations within the city.

The libraries are the anchors of a fourteen-branch library system that is heavily utilized and valued by underserved populations within the city. From the outset, the design-build team considered this project as a collective of public amenities: a civic family of libraries that respond to their immediate localities. Each library acts communally within the framework of the NOPL system and individually in direct response to its surroundings.

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The libraries serve as community living rooms, providing a gathering space and informational resources for their neighborhoods. All five libraries share a common palette of simple building forms and materials—white stucco, charcoal brick, and high-efficiency glazing with metal sunscreens—but each is conditionally unique in its material articulation in response to external and internal influences. Sustainable design strategies include optimized solar orientation for daylighting and mechanical efficiency, high-efficiency lighting, native landscaping, low VOC paint and materials, and recyclable steel exterior solar screening.

Four branches have been constructed: the New Orleans East Regional Branch Library, the Robert E. Smith Community Branch Library, the Norman Mayer District Library, and the Algiers Regional Branch Library. Their patrons have embraced them, and they are enlivened by a vibrant array of community programs.