east longmeadow library bookmark

This bookmark was printed to commemorate the groundbreaking of the East Longmeadow Public Library in Massachusetts, on July 13, 2002. That's nine years next week! My office did the architecture, and I managed the project right through the construction. It was a great project to work on. You can see some images of the building here at the library's website. OSO Interiors did the furnishings. The library re-opened to the public in its present location on February 3, 2004.

For the year and a half that the construction was going on, the library continued to serve the public from a couple of double-wide trailers, set up on the grass next to a church parking lot in town. The New Life Baptist Church, was kind enough to donante the use of this land, its parking lot, and storage space inside the church for the protions of the libraries collections that wouldn't fit in the trailers, all for the library and its patrons.

The groundbreaking ceremony was also a chance for folks to take a last look around the old library, which began its life as a hardware store. I brought my young son to this event and he was delighted to write on the walls of the soon to be demolished building.

The quote is from Winston Churchill; "We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us", from a speech given to the House of Commons on October 28, 1943, about plans for the rebuilding of the Chamber, destroyed by an enemy bomb on May 10, 1941. I think this quote is especially fitting for public libraries and other public buildings, which help to define and support our democracy.