Canoga Park Branch Library
Los Angeles
Carde • Ten Architects

Green-minded library stands out from harsh exurban jungle

© Doug Olson

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Located amid strip malls and fast food joints on a busy thoroughfare in the San Fernando Valley, the Canoga Park Branch Library is one of the only civic buildings in this Los Angeles neighborhood. Boldly defined by a round auditorium at one end, the library provides a welcome contrast to the surrounding exurban architectural banality. Carde • Ten Architects located it directly on the street, confining parking to the rear of the property: another welcome departure in this automobile-centric city.

Adhering strictly to the client’s program, the architects placed all of the library’s functions in one room that a small staff of librarians can easily monitor from a central reference desk. Only a single row of columns, running down the building’s center, interrupts this open space. Each column, which contains conduits for pipes, supports four steel girders that extend outward to the building’s walls. At the walls, the girders are bound together by stainless–steel cables that span the roof and then are anchored to the ground with steel rods and concrete. This support system, developed by Carde • Ten′s Erik Mar for his thesis project at MIT, carries all vertical loads: freeing the walls from this burden and allowing for an uninterrupted band of windows around the building.

The generous band of fenestration, which floods interior spaces with daylight, is one of the library′s many eco-friendly features. Roof girders are tapered at an angle that optimizes solar exposure for a series of photovoltaic panels. Solar cells on the south–facing roof eave do double duty, generating electricity and helping to reduce the solar load. The entire photovoltaic system generates roughly 35,700 kilowatt hours of electricity per year.

Inside the library, the architects were also mindful of sustainability concerns when they located program elements. The main reading area, for instance, occupies the north side of the building, where glazing admits soft northern light that requires less filtering. Elsewhere in the library, the architects added adjustable louvers along the windows to protect the book stacks from overexposure to light. Other ecofriendly features include bamboo flooring, chosen because it is a renewable low-impact resource, and drought–tolerant landscaping.

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Formal name of Project:
Canoga Park Branch Library

Location:
Los Angeles

Gross square footage:
13,062 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$3.8 million

Client:
Library Department, City of Los Angeles

Architect:
Carde • Ten Architects
1638 Nineteenth Street
Santa Monica, CA 90404
310-453-4427 tel.
310-453-5515 fax
www.cardeten.com