DESIGN TREND: Confident Color

Color, color everywhere! To create welcoming, dynamic spaces, libraries have integrated vivid colors into their designs to connect, invite, comfort, and even surprise. This year, public libraries drew inspiration from their communities. The Twin Beaches Branch, Calvert Library, North Beach, MD, highlights the blue and green hues of crashing waves along the sandy shoreline visible just outside the windows. The colors of the Aptos Branch Library, Santa Cruz Public Library, CA, evince forests with varied shades of verdant greens found in the adjacent Forest of Nisene Marks State Park.

Libraries also introduced color to play with light. At the Dr. Shannon Walker Library, Houston Public Library, the grand window wall built of a rainbow of colored glass creates a prism of light into the space that changes with the arc of the sun throughout the day. At night, the multicolored window wall transforms the library into a spectacular glowing lantern, which radiates out into the city. On a more intimate scale, color is used to define and reflect dedicated spaces within the library. The Clark Family Branch, St. Louis County Library, combines vibrant colors with strong graphics to form entryways into their children’s and teen areas.

Libraries without dedicated rooms for specific audiences developed color changes in the flooring, furniture, walls, and graphics to help establish distinct spaces within an open floor plan, such as the Westside Community Center Library, New Braunfels Public Library, TX, which experiments with colorful wall graphics and a mix of blue, green, and bright orange seating, along with shifts in carpet and ceiling colors.

Colors can also really pop! The exterior of the Almonte Library, Metropolitan Library System, Oklahoma City, is clad with brightly painted murals and a soffit constructed of multicolored bands that create a dynamic focal point in the community. Exploring a radically different approach, the LaGrange Memorial Library, GA, presents two contrasting palettes: From the exterior, the building is subdued, with natural materials and neutral tones. Upon entering, the library is an explosion of whimsical color that energizes the space and encourages discovery.

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Dr. Shannon Walker Library, Houston Public Library; BRAVE Architecture, architect; Spawglass, photo.

Clark Family Branch, St. Louis County Library; Lamar Johnson Collaborative, architect; Lucas Peterson, photos.

Westside Community Center Library, New Braunfels Public Library, TX; Komatsu Architecture, architect; © Gary Logan Photography 2024, photo.

LaGrange Memorial Library, GA; Cas Architecture, architect; Garey Gomez, photos.

Aptos Branch Library, Santa Cruz Public Library, CA; ABA, architect; Kyle Jeffers, photo.

Almonte Library, Metropolitan Library System, Oklahoma City; ADG/Blatt, architect; Colby Ballard, photo.

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