DeKalb County Central Senior Center
An intergenerational hub for life-long learning
The Palmetto Library is a new, $3.5M facility serving the communities of Palmetto and Chattahoochee Hills in South Fulton County. At 11,300 SF, the facility delivers much needed public library services to a largely rural but rapidly developing region of Georgia.
Programmatically, the library consists of four primary areas: an adult’s resource area; a children’s resource area; staff workspaces; and a public meeting space. As we began design, we took deep inspiration from local vernacular structures, especially their material presence and fit with the land. As we began considering our design and its response to the local terrain and climate, we chose barns as a befitting formal archetype to explore. What intrigued us was how we could provide a structure that was both familiar and unfamiliar to people visiting.
The library sits in a three acre, gently sloping site just outside of downtown Palmetto. The site design recalls pecan groves in the area by planting a grid of trees that tie the building and parking together.
Client
Dekalb County Central Senior Center
Location
Decatur, GA
Status
Completed
Size
16,700 SF
Project Team
Gregory Walker, Amy Leathers, Ryan Coleman
Collaborators
Foresite Group, Johnson Spellman Associates,
TSAV, ACES, CORE Atlanta
Tags
Cultural, Civic
Key program includes a large multipurpose dining
hall, catering kitchen, café, and numerous classrooms, with a dedicated arts classroom that includes a clay kiln. Additional classrooms provide generous openings to allow interaction with the street and surrounding sidewalks.
Based on a broad engagement with the local community through open meetings, presentations, and regular conversations, we began to understand future users wanted an ability to reconfigure spaces and classrooms themselves. Because the Center operates with paid memberships, spaces for instruction and gathering have to provide a high degree of flexibility, as programming content rotates every 2 to 3 months.
The café, primary exercise rooms, and several classrooms all face directly onto the playground.
Internally, users are encouraged to keep active with bright, attractive stairs in highly visible locations. Views across each space are oriented such that they terminate in glazed walls, extending the view of the user back out into the community. Areas of daily contact and high touch were provided custom details and fittings as appropriate.
A large gathering and performance space faces onto
the existing playground and park space, providing connections inside and out.
At the interior, bursts of strong color help provide orientation to each room or area.
Areas of daily contact and high touch were provided custom details and fittings as appropriate.