How do you build a library in a Dallas community with 54 languages? Check it out

Shop for groceries and other items in Burmese, Ethiopian, and Mexican markets at the small mall adjoining the recently opened Vickery Park Branch Library. That’s three continents at about 45 feet.

Vickery Meadow, as this spice-scented department store testifies, has become the heart of both immigrant and refugee life in Dallas. It’s a dense and diverse neighborhood, although its architecture, mostly nondescript residential complexes in various phases of decline, doesn’t do much to reflect the character of the population.

This unfortunate state is getting a welcome aesthetic boost with the addition of the $ 6.4 million Vickery Park Library, which turns an empty lot into something that should become a vibrant cultural and educational center after the pandemic subsides.

“The community speaks 56 languages, and I can’t even name 56 languages,” says the project’s architect, Robert Meckfessel, founding director of DSGN Associates of Oak Cliff. This linguistic diversity is integrated into the building in the truest sense of the word: The word “Welcome” is engraved in the glass windows in front of the entrance in Amharic, Arabic, Burmese, Chin, English, French, Nepali, Spanish, Swahili and Tigrinya.

The well thought-out modern design of the new Vickery Park branch library shows clear lines and a cool range of materials aimed at a high level of sustainability.(Juan Figueroa / employee photographer)

The main part of the library is in the shape of an ellipse, its curved shapes, according to Meckfessel, responding to municipal traffic patterns on the site that connects the converging streets of Park Lane and Ridgecrest Road. During the holiday season, the empty space in the library was used for the community’s popular annual festival of lights. To keep this tradition going, a large lacebark elm was imported from Georgia – another immigrant from the neighborhood – and planted in a landscaped space in front of the library as the focal point of the event.

This area also includes a children’s playground with a climbing structure, a facility requested by community members during public planning meetings for the building. Children are a priority for the library, which is located directly across from DISD’s Sam Tasby Middle and Jack Lowe Elementary School.

There are also more parking spaces than necessary – 36 parking spaces, as stipulated by the city regulations – regardless of the fact that it is on a bus route and in an area where not everyone drives. The landscape design comes from Studio Outside in Dallas.

The clear lines and the cool range of materials of the one-story building reveal Meckfessel’s modernist sensitivity. He is a longtime advocate for the preservation of mid-century architecture, both in Dallas and nationally. The original conception of the building was entirely in this language: “It started as a glass box, but we needed more shelf space.” Hence the gray brick. A wide, overhanging canopy envelops the exterior, providing protection from the elements along the edge of the building while keeping the sun at bay.

The plant strives for a high level of sustainability. It is designed to be 100 percent CO2-neutral, with solar cells on the roof supplying 33 percent of its electricity. A corner of the landscaped area, along Park Lane, will be given over to a rainwater retention basin.

Inside, three colorful, drum-shaped capsules provide closed areas for courses and meetings.(Juan Figueroa / employee photographer)

In a modern tradition, the 18,000 square meter facility has an open floor plan and offers librarians what Meckfessel describes as “ultimate flexibility”. The utilities are routed under a raised floor, with a comfortable rubberized surface determined by the library staff. It’s a bright room lit by wide windows that break through the brick facade and a series of cloister windows above.

Three drum-shaped capsules (in red, blue and green) of different sizes float in the interior and provide closed areas for classes (English as a second language is popular) and other meetings. The largest of the pods is divided into whimsical wedges for small groups.

There’s clever detailing too: the stacks of books have powder-coated metal end caps, essentially dry-erase whiteboards, so librarians can easily rearrange a shelf if necessary. In the large children’s area there are flower boxes in bright red for comfortable reading in peace.

A rectangular structure made of hinged concrete slabs is clipped onto the rear of the elliptical library building; This includes a meeting room with 90 seats, a flexible storage area and office space that has been deliberately kept small to encourage staff to stay on the library floor.

The library’s most dramatic feature is the exposed steel train system with cables that meet at hanging king posts.(Juan Figueroa / employee photographer)

The most dramatic feature of the library is the exposed steel train system that supports the metal roof terrace. To keep the central area of ​​the library column-free, Meckfessel and civil engineer Tom Taylor of Datum Engineers created a three-dimensional truss system with a network of steel cables traversing the width of the 80-foot span. “Tom doesn’t like to make things easy,” says Meckfessel of Taylor, a revered figure in the Dallas architecture scene.

The cables meet on hanging king posts, clear white steel cylinders that Taylor was proud of.

“We didn’t go out of our way to make it architecturally pleasing because the concept was that it would be clad with drywall,” says Taylor. “But I have an innate opinion: if you develop a really nice system to solve structural problems, it is automatically architecturally appealing.”

That is certainly the case here, and it is particularly appropriate in a library, a room devoted to opening eyes to things we normally don’t see. Incidentally, giving the invisible a dignified presence seems exactly the right metaphor for a library in Vickery Meadow, a community that is often overlooked but deserves attention.

Its features now include a fine new movement in a modern design.

CORRECTION, June 1, 2021: This story has been updated to reflect that the budget for building the library was $ 6.4 million, not $ 6 million. The total cost of the library, including fees, furnishings, and other expenses, is estimated to be approximately $ 10 million. A lacebark elm in front of the library was imported from Georgia, not Arkansas.

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