PROJECT FOCUS MUSEUMS, LIBRARIES AND CULTURAL CENTERS
McAllen Public Library, McAllen, Texas The $25.7 million library opened in December 2011, and has garnered awards in two national design con- tests, the 2013 American Institute of Architects Honor Awards for Interior Architecture and the International Interior Design Association/American Library Associa- tion’s 2012 Library Interior Design Competition. Placed on the site of a vacant Wal-Mart, the
adaptive reuse project saved approximately 130,000 square feet of building demolition debris from being sent to the local landfi ll. Boultinghouse Simpson Gates Architects, the architect of record, was placed under the restriction that the new library was in no way to resemble the building’s previous retail tenant, according to John Gates, AIA, principal, Boultinghouse Simpson Gates. McAllen Public Library occupies 123,000 square
feet on one fl oor, making it the largest one-story library in the country. The entryway includes a 108- by 44-foot canopy clad in 3A Composites USA Inc.’s Alucobond aluminum composite material (ACM) pan- els. A total of 15,000 square feet of 6-mm Alucobond ACM in the contemporary Steel City Silver Mica color was installed on the library, including as cladding on the main entry canopy and on a secondary entry canopy. Alucobond was also installed on the library’s exterior identity signage and as building trim.
The main entry canopy is supported by two
concrete walls—one of which is submerged in a pool and includes a circular opening. Water cascades through the opening into the pool. This water-wall was designed to pump more than 2,000 gallons per minute to mask traffi c noise from a nearby busy in- tersection and to the area surrounding the canopy on hot days. Alucobond ACM is installed as library sig- nage that wraps around three sides of the water-wall. Signage text was water-jet cut into the Alucobond. The main entry canopy plays an important role in
shielding library patrons from the elements in McAl- len, according to Gates. “It can get brutally hot in the summer here. So it was important to provide shade as far out into the parking lot as possible.” Formable Alucobond also performed well in the
secondary 60- by 30-foot canopy, which includes a circular opening to allow a palm tree to grow through it, according to Eduardo Richa, general partner with fabricator and installer, Bowman Distributing Co. “The Alucobond shapes well,” says Richa. The secondary canopy is located on the li-
brary’s northeast corner, which is dark much of the time, according to Gates. “We wanted to illuminate the space,” says Gates. “Putting the tree through the opening adds interest.”
Gates says the Alucobond Steel City Mica color
worked well in the building’s new color scheme, which Boultinghouse Simpson Gates created in con- sultation with Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle Ltd. The latter fi rm designed the library’s interior as a consul- tant to Boultinghouse Simpson Gates. “The overall theme of growth was applied
to the colors and shapes in the new library,” says Gates. “The colors are based on local nature, including the colorful birds that pass through the Rio Grande Valley each spring when they migrate from South America to Canada.” Alucobond was selected for its durability,
according to Gates, who became familiar with the original aluminum composite material in a previous project for a car dealership. “We wanted a metal panel for the library that was durable and resistant to oil canning,” notes Gates. “The panel also had to hold up to any fl ying debris that could dent it.” The Alucobond dramatically demonstrated its ability to meet that last requirement during a spring storm that hit McAllen on March 29, 2012. Exterior walls of the old Wal-Mart consisted
of 12-inch-thick concrete block painted light blue. Those walls were covered in stucco in Baguette, Humble Gold and Rugged Brown colors. An outdoor
circle #17 on reader service card
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