On Saturday, May 11, our design team joined library trustees and staff and state and local officials to celebrate the completion of the Edith B. Ford Memorial Library renovation and expansion in Ovid, NY.
The $3.2 million project included an addition that nearly doubles the library’s floor area, providing much needed additional space, including an expanded youth area, reading space, expanded archival/historic collection and conservation area, and meeting spaces for classes and community events. SWBR designed the addition to complement the original building, which was built in 1961 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a prime example of mid-20th center architecture.
“The building was done on time, which is amazing,” said Library Director Shannon O’Connor. And a good thing, as the busy slate of summer programs can be held at the library, and not at off site locations like last summer.
The project also includes a public patio that wraps around the building’s west and south sides, engaging both Main Street and the bordering County Park. The patio will serve to host community events that take place at the library as well as a number of school programs. Boulder step seating was added to the hill side to the south of the extended patio for additional event spill-out and seating.
SWBR provided architectural, structural engineering, interior design, and landscape architecture for the renovation and addition.