The New Library Project

Building Plans

First Floor Plan (PDF File)
Second Floor Plan (PDF file)

The Building Site

The new library will be located in the Stillwater Mill Redevelopment Zone, which is located on the Clear River, just below the mill pond falls in Harrisville. Access to the site will be from Main Street in Harrisville.

Because our project will be partially funded by the Public Library Construction Reimbursement Program, the Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services has posted a project page for which includes pictures of the proposed site as well as basic construction facts and figures.

The Architects

Newport Collaborative Architects, Inc.

38 Washington Square, Newport, RI 02840
Phone: (401) 846-9583

333 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903
Phone: (401) 272-2144

New Library Design Narrative

In the summer of 2004, the Newport Collaborative team was selected to design a new public library for the Town of Burrillville, in Northern Rhode Island. The selected site was a former worsted wool mill located on the banks of the Clear River and directly across from a man-made waterfall used to power the original mills. The final master plan for the Stillwater Mill Development was developed by the NCA team in concert with the schematic design for the Library. The scheme for the library closely follows the goals set forth in the Stillwater Mill Master Plan, which is to preserve the best of the original mill buildings and unite the various separate parcels into a single master plan linked by a common road system, shared parking, integrated parks, and a pedestrian circulation system. The resulting concept plan was passed by the voters in November of 2004 in a 5-million dollar bond referendum.

The new 24,750 SF library building has been sited to allow for the creation of a River Walk along the waters edge to provide views of the waterfall from various areas within the library. The River Walk runs by the community meeting rooms in the library and from an interior public concourse that runs from the main entrance out to the River Walk.

The massing of the new building is based on the development patterns of the mill building structures that existed in the Stillwater Mill Complex. These patterns are intriguing and as we found, naturally lend themselves to the organization of a modern Library structure. This is a complicated site with few 90-degree angles. The building massing grew from these older patterns allowing for frontage along the river to the east. The Main Reading Room faces East Avenue to the North and the two-story Community Meeting Center, which also contains the Children’s Library faces the new circulation road and the River. The leisure reading and reference areas have saw tooth shaped, north facing clerestory lights, reminiscent of the skylight monitors found on the weaving sheds in the old textile mills. Windows along the River Lounge maximize natural light and views of the river.

The reading room has been designed with a curved vaulted roof both to simplify the massing of the building complex and to emulate the industrial forms found in buildings of this era. Inside large wood bowstring roof trusses spanning 55-feet have been exposed utilizing glulam truss technology with exposed wood decking.

Exterior materials consist of ground face masonry block for a stone-like feel and two kinds of wood cladding; red cedar shingles and horizontal siding. A synthetic ribbed roofing system is proposed for the vaulted roof to give the appearance of standing seam metal. The other roofs are either flat or very slightly pitched, again to follow the patterns of the industrial buildings on the site. Overall the new Jesse Smith Community Library will fit into its historical industrial setting, respond to this wonderful riverside siting opportunity, and be capable of rising to the challenges of the 21st century. Ground breaking is scheduled for early September 2006. The library is scheduled to open in June 2008.