Woodland Hills Branch
Los Angeles
Barton Phelps & Associates

An angular roof raises this library’s profile

© Benny Chan, Fotoworks

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Barton Phelps′ building replaces an older library branch on the same site designed in the early 1960s by architects Bowerman and Hobson. Preservationists fought to save the original structure, which featured a Googie–style curvy canopy roof, and Phelps′ team initially attempted to incorporate it into a newer building. Two other considerations, however, ultimately made this strategy impossible: the 1960s–era building would have required costly retrofitting to bring it up to current seismic codes, and the site was not large enough to accommodate an expansion of this building without demolishing a stand of Eucalyptus trees that the community also wanted to save.

Although the new building′s materials palette of brick walls and a concrete roof pays homage to the earlier structure, any resemblance between the two buildings stops there. Since the new building is located at the rear of the lot behind the trees and a parking lot, Phelps′ team ensured it would still be visible from Ventura Boulevard by raising one corner of its roofline to create a partial secondary story. This muscular, triangular volume provides space for a librarian′s workroom and allows for a double-height main reading room with clerestory windows.

A single truss supports the roof, allowing for 25–foot–high, butt – joined glass windows at the corner of the property. The roof then slopes down as it recedes from the street–facing elevation, creating a more intimate scale for the children’s area at the rear of the library and matching the lower scale of houses behind it. Phelps′ team originally had planned an outdoor children′s play patio at the rear of the building, but neighbors expressed concern that kids would make too much noise. Now, the neighbors simply look out upon the flat, concrete expanse of the library′s sloping roof–but, as Phelps notes, it doesn’t seem to bother them.

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Formal name of project:
Los Angeles Public Library Woodland Hills Branch

Location:
Los Angeles

Gross square footage:
12,500 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$3.8 million

Client:
City of Los Angeles

Architect:
Barton Phelps & Associates Architects and Planners
5514 Wilshire Boulevard, 10th Fl.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-934-8615 tel.
323-934-3289 fax
www.bpala.com