What does it take to design an elementary school library that inspires kids to read and learn? Vision, common sense, an ability to take risks and, most importantly, a set of aesthetics that promotes curiosity and excitement.

Henry Myerberg had those considerations in mind when he remade the Clara Barton School library in New York's South Bronx. Myerberg and nine other New York - based architecture firms are part of an ambitious endeavor by the Robin Hood Foundation and the New York City Board of Education to revolutionize the future design of school libraries and greatly expand their role in education. (See "Gotham's Grand Vision ".) Each design firm spent thousands of hours combined—all pro bono—to rebuild 10 school libraries selected from the city's poorest neighborhoods. Clara Barton's library was the first to open its doors last fall, and the remainder are nearing completion in the coming weeks and months. The new libraries will serve as a test case for rolling out the rest of the city's refurbished school libraries.

With its outdated books and institutional-like setting, Clara Barton's former library was nothing to get excited about. That was before spring 2000, when Myerberg and his firm, Helfand Myerberg Guggenheimer, set their sites on transforming the 1,000-square-foot room into a dynamic 2,100-square-foot center for learning, filled with rich colors on the walls, furniture, and floors, and glass and steel lighting fixtures shaped like candies. Now, nearly 200 students traffic in and out of the fifth-floor library each day, man y with a book or two in tow, says school librarian Elliot Gorlin. "Since the facility opened up, the kids are so anxious to come in," he says. "We have better than 50 percent of the school taking out books each and every week." That's quite a transformation for the 920 mainly African-American and Hispanic students.

The "L!brary," as its bright orange sign aptly proclaims, has two large Alice in Wonderland - like windows shaped like exclamation points on its front doors. Upon entering the room, kids have access to fully rewired educational facilities and resources, and can lounge around in soft colorful sofas and chairs, or browse the stackable LEGO - like bookshelves that house a 10,000-book collection.

Craig Levine, director of special projects for the Board of Education, says the new library is so spectacular that even he was excited to see it. "I can only imagine what a five-, six-, seven-, or eight-year-old feels like walking in, particularly when these places are juxtaposed against surrounding neighborhoods that don't have lots of high investment or state-of-the-art, beautiful facilities that say to kids, 'You're terribly important.'"

Instilling that sense of importance in children was high on the list of goals when the architects first gathered to outline a set of design standards for the libraries. Principals, school librarians, and teachers, as well as representatives from the Board of Education all offered their input. The team came up with three basic requirements: a minimum of 1,400 square feet to work with (the space had to be large enough to create a sense of importance, awe, and wonder), two-thirds of which was reserved for an instructional section and a librarian station, and one-third reserved for an open-seated mini-theater. The rest was left to each architect's own imagination.

The library project was all about taking risks and experimenting with unproven concepts—and the architects did their best to defy convention. One of the first ite ms on their agenda was to replace the mantra "form follows function" with "form follows flexibility" by introducing diversity and liveliness in place of uniformity and balance. Kids would no longer consider it a chore or punishment to visit the library but a reward. Rooms were to be airy and spacious to promote socialization and interactive learning. "We wanted to give kids a chance to discover space on their own. If everything is in a line or regimented, there's no sense of discovery," says Myerberg. In essence, the group created a new recipe for school library design, with fun and excitement as the main ingredients.

What design elements best encourage children's learning? Common sense dictates anything that introduces warmth and invitation, Myerberg says. Unlike adults, children don't mind getting close to each other, even huddling, in learning situations. And they're always curious about the next person's activities. The new space should also offer a sense of community, where parents and others outside the school feel welcome. "Rethink the library as the heart and the hub of the school; everything feeds into it," he says. That means inventing with the user in mind—introducing bold colors, direct and indirect lighting, cutting-edge technology, comfortable seating, soft rugs and pillows; and furniture that encourages the human touch.

"We tried to use design as a learning tool, but also to expand people's visual literacy experiences," Myerberg adds. Everything about Clara Barton's library drives that point home: from the various mathematical color schemes on the colored chairs to the scroll inscribed with student poetry lining the library's walls. Since flexibility is a key design element, 16-inch-high custom-made chairs replaced standard 14-inch children's seating. Round tables were chosen for their communal shape, and four-place seating was used because it was thought to be a collaborative number. Desktop computers rest on three-quarter round tables pushed up against the walls. Lar ge holes were drilled into the sides of futuristic-looking metallic bookshelves to encourage seeing, touching, and exploring. And the books were shelved according to subject area and interest, so the eye would be attracted to them.

"In some cases it was a stretch because we haven't seen these kinds of configurations in school libraries," says Carol Blumenthal, a Robin Hood education consultant. "We allowed a lot of flexibility in terms of the architect, and we experimented with many schools. You'll see some spaces are arranged in ways that are quite unique, and we're not quite sure are going to work."

Using the basic recipe outlined by the architects, Richard Lewis, of Richard H. Lewis Architect, is close to unveiling his redesign of the Newport Street School in Brooklyn. Lewis chose to juxtapose traditional hardwood library shelves with contemporary furniture to evoke a historical feeling in a modern setting. Large colorful photomurals of the school's students loom above the bookcases t o "reinforce their sense of belonging in this special place," Lewis says.

Zack McKown, of Tsao & McKown, believes learning is a process of personal discovery, so the architect chose to devise "mini-environments" within the larger library space at the Marino Jeantet School in Queens. The idea is to allow individual children to be alone in their own discovery trove. The architect also created a small theater, complete with a stage and a 10 foot by 50 foot wraparound curtain that turns into a special room within a room. The other side of the library contains a tower of books in a walk-in-closet - type zone, creating a smaller reading room. "The castle image is deliberate—books rule," McKown says.

Weiss/Manfredi Architects, the firm behind the library reconstruction at the Robert Vernam School in Queens, decided to relocate the library from the fourth floor to the main floor. That way, it would have a strategic location next to the school's entrance and cafeteria and be easil y accessible to students and parents. The library's curved wall winds through and around the space providing places for small groups of kids to gather and study. The winding wall also outlines a curtained story-telling and teacher resource area, which can be used for special events and combined class meetings.

Ronnette Riley Architect, which expects to complete its reconstruction of the Norbert Rillieux Academy in Harlem this month, uses materials and furniture of various heights to identify spaces within the open room. Two shelving and storage "snakes" made of multi-colored plywood, demarcate individual areas of the room, while bookcases wrap the overall space.

"A person who is used to the traditional notions of a library could challenge anything in any of these places," says Lonni Tanner, Robin Hood's director of special projects. But that's what this project is all about—pushing the envelope with school library design. "It's about improving the instructional quality in schools , and we look at the library as a catalyst to helping achieve that."