MCPL: Silver Spring Library Project

Current News - posted February 15, 2011

Building Design Update

Site work is underway with work proceeding on the stormwater management and sewer infrastructure. Electric, gas, phone, and cable infrastructure design are in process. Utility site work is expected to be completed in late Fall 2011.

The budget for the Silver Spring Library building design has not been cut or reduced. The County has asked the architects to move ahead with the exterior and interior design, designing to the current approved CIP budget. The project is now in the Design Development phase where the architect studies items such as the building structure, mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems in greater detail. The floor plans will be refined by looking at furniture arrangements, code issues, and material choices. The exterior of the building will be studied, and selections will be made for the glass, the curtain wall systems, stone, and other materials to be used on the outside. The architects will continue to look for ways to realize savings on the cost of the building while retaining the design and community preferences. This phase will take approximately 9 to 12 months. The project will proceed to the Construction Documents phase when the County approves the Design Development submission.

At the public meeting in November 2010, the community clearly indicated its support of the escalators, which will be kept in the building design. The community did not provide a clear preference for or rejection of any of the other savings options presented by the architects, which included moving the meeting rooms to a lower level, reducing or eliminating the floor with Health and Human Services offices, reducing the floor to ceiling heights in the library, and substituting a more conventional glass curtain wall for the structural glazing at the Fenton Street entrance.

Program of Requirements

Program of Requirements, revised May 2009. This document has been signed by the Director of the Department of Public Libraries and is currently being circulated through the Department of General Services and the Office of Management and Budget for final signature. The document will be considered a “draft” until the signature process is complete; no further revisions to the document are possible at this time.

Partial funding provided by the County Library Capital Grant Program, Maryland State Department of Education, Division of Library Development and Services.

Additional Project Documentation

Exterior design, Public Presentation, November 30, 2010
Update report and building renderings presented to the Health and Human Services committee of the County Council, September 27, 2010.
Public presentation, August 26, 2010
Fact sheet, August 30, 2010
LEED score sheet for green building for the new Silver Spring Library
Disability parking options from County Council discussion, May 4
History of the new Silver Spring Library
Silver Spring Library Project from the Montgomery County Department of General Services, Building Design and Construction Section
Groundbreaking! See photographs and read the program from this August 30 event.

If you have any questions or comments, please email us at newsslibrary@montgomerycountymd.gov

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