Oh, it is seven. >> We're waiting for the technology. >> Seven. We always have to look at our cell phones for the select board to make sure we're starting right. >> Recording in progress. >> There we go. >> Welcome everyone. Uh, I'm going to open
this meeting officially because we have a quorum of our library building committee and because this is a hybrid meeting. I just have to announce that. So, we're doing that, but we do have to have a roll call attendance for our
membership. I'm Judy Connors Tarver and I'm the chair of the library building committee. John Greco, uh, construction representative, >> Janet Edos, >> Sandy F from capital budget, >> Dorcas McGarin from the board of select,
select board, excuse me. >> Okay. Thank you. So, welcome. We appreciate your attendance and Oh, I can forget you. I was focused on the voting people. Go. Um, Joseph
Rick, Yarmouthtown Libraries, >> Mindy Harrington, Yarmouthtown Libraries, >> who are very valuable participants. Uh, we also have a couple people up here on the panel who have been working with us. Um Matt Odens is from Audenzello
Architecture which is our firm and Tim Arnold is from our uh owners project manager firm Accenture and an owner's project manager
represents us in uh the whole process. So if we don't catch something that's their job. I can't read those. >> All right. So, now I I guess I can keep going.
So, thanks for coming. Um, this is a pretty significant project for a town. And just a couple of housekeeping things. There is a sign-in sheet and we would like you to sign in uh mostly for a headcount so we can keep track of uh
how many people have participated in our sessions. And there are cards all over the place, little index cards if you would like to make comments about anything that happens today. There's a return box right over there in front of
Dorcas and you can just drop them in. You can use a several cards for different topics if you want, but uh those are all over the place and we will the whole committee will review the comment cards. So, the purpose of our meeting tonight is to
bring you up to date on the activities of the library building committee and to hear um feedback from you as our process continues. Um we'll start with a little project review and that will be followed by a presentation by Matt and then we're
going to have an open period. you can see the boards around the room and we will circulate with you so that you can uh ask questions and look more closely at what's been have what has been presented. So how we got to this place
was there have been many studies and proposals dating back at least 20 years and some of you have been through those decision-making processes yourselves. Um the most recent study presented to the select board in May 2024
identified several very significant concerns. Uh particularly related just to the building structure. We have insufficient space to store books and media. The building systems are antiquated meaning
HVAC, electricity, those sorts of things. um the buildings are not fully ADA compliant and we don't have the space and systems because of those limitations to support different programs and technology.
So in determining the needs for a library to serve the entire town um for a town of our population which is 25,000 and which swells to 65,000 seasonally
uh and with based on our collection it was recommended that we have a library of 25,000 square feet. that has been modified as you'll hear in the presentation and that new library should be on a site which affords parking outdoor
programming space and possible expansion opportunities in the future. So, our committee interviewed nine applicants and we tried we it was a pretty grueling interview, I think. Um,
and we chose Aendalo to uh move forward with us on this project because we deemed them to be a really good fit with us and the community. And then we moved into site selection. We reviewed eight sites and all of
except one of those is already owned by the town. Uh so an environmental study was done by Pay Corporation and then the committee reviewed that. A public session was conducted on June 17 and we heard lots of feedback from some
of you who are in the room tonight. Uh the Simkins field site was selected. It was presented to the select board on June 24 and they approved it. So now we're moving into the conceptual design phase and this session is going to
mirror what we did with site selection. Uh so this site is very generous in size and we're going to have to consider the impact on other past uses and potential
uses of the area. the surrounding residents and then we're going to also have to take into account access to the building and that will include vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, anybody who wants to come in.
The other kind of influence we have on our decision-making is that we are working with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners to secure grant um support and we need to meet a deadline in December
uh to move forward to the next phase and that's really influencing the pace that we're moving at. Um, so I'm going to turn this over to Matt Odens and he's going to give you a rundown of uh what's
happening. I think Mindy is taking care of some technology needs and Matt will go through uh the various proposals and we're going to hold questions till the end, but we welcome your questions. There we go.
>> All right. Thank you, Judy. Thank you all for coming out tonight um to learn about what we've been talking about with the LBC for the last month or so. Um my name is Matt Odens with Odin Architecture. Uh before we talk about you, I wanted to talk a little bit
quickly about who we are so you understand who it is the town hired. Um Odinello Architecture is a 12person office in Boston. We were founded in 2007. My business partner and I spent 10 years prior to that working on uh
working for a a midsize firm in Boston where we focused on cultural projects um including libraries. Our first my first library project was a new branch for the Boston Public Library in the neighborhood of Alustin and it really gave me a tremendous appreciation for
the transformative nature of public libraries for their communities, the incredible resource they are. Since founding our practice, uh we have continued to focus on on cultural projects with a strong focus on public libraries. Um, this is a kind of
cross-section of of a number of the library projects that we've worked on over the years. Most of those in Massachusetts, but some in other states, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York. Um, they range in scale from 40,000 square
feet to 4,500 square feet. Um, and I'll talk about a couple of these in detail. Um, overall, we've worked on 26 public library projects since 2009. 22 of those, excuse me, in Massachusetts, 15 of those are the
Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, the MBLC, um, through their grant program. And the grant program has changed over the years, as have the MBLC staff, but it has given us a very clear understanding of what the MBLC is looking for. It's given us an
opportunity to develop um, strong working relationships with the MBLC representatives. U we have a very healthy exchange and dialogue with them. We're able to we don't always agree on things but um we sort of hash things out and we come to agreements with uh with
them with our clients. Every town is different and so the particulars of that project may mean that things are done a little differently than in a different town. Um and they're open to those kinds of conversations and our our relationship with them I think helps facilitate that. We have 10 completed
projects, uh, library projects in Massachusetts with, uh, three in construction at the moment. Um, again, sort of related to our relationship with the NBLC and our understanding of libraries in general,
they put out a a planning resource guide. This is really intended to be a nationwide um, planning resource for libraries that establish kind of best practices for planning. This was put out I think just before co um and of the 14
case studies they chose three of our libraries to include in the book. So we felt you know that was some validation that that they appreciated the work that we are doing. In terms of our approach to public libraries or public buildings in general, and this really predates
COVID, um we feel very strongly that public buildings need to have a strong relationship to outdoor space. Um whether that's visual, it's just, you know, allowing for daylight and views or
it's actual physical connections to the outdoors. We think that that kind of meaningful connection, whether it's a covered porch uh like at the Norwell Library in that lower left corner or a reading room with tall windows overlooking a pond like in East Ham in
the upper right. Uh reading gardens like that central image or the lower right image. Um those kinds of spaces make public libraries in particular, I think, more rewarding for the people that use them, including staff. Um and we think
that you know we do um a lot of uh public work in general uh or or work with a public audience, museums, libraries, other cultural projects. And that's a really um important thing that the kind of public engagement the creating spaces that are pleasant for
people to be in, make you want to stay longer, come back. Um so those are kind of the things that we think about as we're as we're designing uh buildings for public use. Um, just quickly touching on a couple of completed projects. This is the East Ham Library
that some of you may know, completed in 2016. Uh, this is a Lead Gold certified um, net zero energy building. It's 100% on-site renewable by way of solar. It was the first net zero public library in Massachusetts. Um, it's won a number of
awards. And in addition to accommodating the program, this is a 17,500 ft² addition to a 300 ft historic building. Um it also took very seriously the restoration of the wetland buffer
between this building and the pond. It it um is adjacent to a deep water kettle pond. And so moving parking from behind the building, restoring the wetlands, thinking very carefully about storm water management, all sort of went into
the thinking about how this building was was organized. Um, couple of images. That's the original historic building which we relocated um and added on to. The building is organized and shapes uh organized around a central courtyard
that is used as a kind of reading garden. It's a sloping site. So we had program tucked in under the wing that faces the the pond. And we really tried to push as much of the library program towards the pond as we could open up views, make that connection uh as strong
as possible so that when you're in that library, you feel like you're kind of in the trees overlooking the pond. Um and it's a really lovely spot. Um a different kind of context, the Webster Public Library. This was completed in 2016. Um, this is a little bit more
urban. I think what's interesting about this one for me and and also I think um relates it a little bit to your project is that it is adjacent to a public green. The town hall is sort of behind us in this image. And so it's an important civic building. It has a
presence that is important on that public green. And we wanted the building, the the porch, the steps, um that edge of the green to be active. We wanted to provide a place for people to sit when there's something happening on the green. We wanted the library to be a
prominent um front that you see as you're coming down Main Street. Um and so those are the kinds of things that we that we think about. We think beyond the limits of a given site. You know, this we saw this as a kind of anchor to this end of of Main Street. So we thought
about its position in town beyond just you know accommodating library program. um interior. This is a more compact building. Uh it's 21,000 square feet. It was really important to bring natural light into the middle of the building. So, there's a skylight that that does
that into this kind of centrally lit atrium. They also had a very small staff at the time that we designed it. They had three full-time staff for a 21,000t building. And so, it was super important that they be able to see everything. So, there's a huge amount of transparency.
In that upper left image, the sort of yellow green wall is the children's room. From that desk, you can see all the way down the other end of the library to the to that lower right image, the periodicals room, the study rooms. So, there's a tremendous amount of visibility, and that's hugely important, I think, in public library
design. Um, the Norwell Public Library, uh, sort of halfway between here and Boston, um, is completely surrounded by wetlands. It's a very unusual condition. and there are no buildings around it. Um, it's literally on an island in the middle of wetlands surrounded by woods.
And so we wanted to celebrate that context. It's uh like East Ham. It's a it's a mass timber framed um structural system. So all exposed wood beams that sort of ties it to that uh wooded context. It's a singlestory building,
21,000 square feet. So similar in size to yours. Uh this is this was a lead silver project. And it really was intended to kind of celebrate that context and from the inside really make you feel connected to to the surrounding woods. Uh the
right-hand image on the bottom is the adult stack and and reading area. Image on the left is the children's room. So they're treated kind of equally. You come in to, you know, through an entry courtyard into a lower uh a lower ceiling lobby. And then as you move through the building, you emerge into
these rooms with huge windows and great natural light. Um, and that the the treatment is the same for the kids as it is for the the adults. They get the same kind of benefit um from that type of space and the enjoyment of that.
Um, the last library I'm going to touch on is the Belmont Public Library, which is currently in construction. This is set to open this year. Uh this is our largest largest project, largest library project to date. This is a 40,000 square foot new building. Um again, this one
had some wetland uh conditions and this is not to suggest that you do on the Simkins property. Uh it just happens that we we end up seeing a lot of wetlands on our projects. Um this one like Norwell, like Eastam, sort of
leaned into that and was trying to celebrate that context. Um, like Webster, this is a little bit more urban. Um, it's on a busy street, but it faces a a town green. Uh, it backs up onto this wetland landscape where
there's a a stream. And so, we've developed a kind of wetland garden that the library opens out to in the back. Um, it's organized around this central uh library commons. This is the adult level up here. You can see the meeting room. The entire back wall of the
meeting room is glass. So when you are enter the building, you see through it completely out to this wetland uh garden in the back. And so there's a lot of transparency and again the site factors in pretty heavily to to our thinking. So that brings us to you and Simkins Field.
I'm sure you guys are all familiar with this property. We were less so. And so we started with this with these aerial views. And when we went out there for our site visit, uh we met our landscape architect and walked around to get a
sense and realized just how vast this site is. It is enormous. Um and and there unlike most of our sites, there isn't a whole lot to kind of grab onto when you're in the middle of the site.
We like context. We like things that we can sort of identify as key attributes that we can sort of tap into. And it and this one we found ourselves kind of clinging to the edges. You know, we were talking next to the trees because there
was some scale and some shade and we didn't feel as exposed as standing in the middle of the field. And so it took some time, I think, to to sort of develop an attitude about this. Um but I'm going to walk you through some of our initial thinking and then we'll look at that at our initial um kind of
library planning options. So this the this is actually comprised of two parcels that are both town owned. Parcel 50 which is on the left which is where the fields are. Parcel 60 which is where the Bridgewater State Building is. They are two different parcels but they are commonly owned by the town and so the
property line in the middle is less important than the surrounding property lines. Uh the Simkins School residence is just to the south and there's, as you all probably know, this sort of oddshaped triangular site uh between Route 28 and Wood Road where there's a
fireman's memorial there um directly across from Town Hall. So when we look at this as a possible site for a building, even though it's a commonlyowned, you know, sort of combined two parcels,
there is also an access road. So maybe more importantly than the property line that divides those two parcels, the access road kind of serves as a a bifurcating element between one side and the other. So the green shaded area is what we see as the the sort of potential
place for a new library. And as I said, it's quite large. So we were thinking, well, where do we put a 24,000t library? That's now been reduced to 22,000 ft, by the way. Um, we started thinking about putting it close to Route 28. You know,
as good urban planners, we think a an important civic building should be close to the street, easily accessible, highly visible. But putting it up at Route 28 across from town hall, which makes some sense for these kind of two civic buildings, puts all of the landscape,
the potential future town common behind it, which doesn't really work very well in terms of its visibility from from the main road. So, we kind of ruled this out as as a a logical place for the library. We thought, should we push it back, put
it in the middle of the property? But that left just kind of three sort of unconnected outdoor spaces that didn't feel like any one of them was going to be successful, wasn't going to be big enough for outdoor events. And so, again, we ruled this out as a a
possibility for the library. And also the library feels frankly a little bit untethered out there. It's not on the road. It's not on the access road. Um it's starting to feel a little too far from Route 28. Next, we looked at the western edge. Should we, as we did when
we walked the site, should we kind of hug the edges? But this puts it right in the backyards of the private residences, which I can't imagine would be received well. Um, and again, it doesn't really put the library in a place where it's easily accessible. It's far from the
access road. It's not particularly close to Route 28. Um, and so again, for those reasons, we thought this wasn't quite right either. Um, this is sort of the three bears approach. So then then we got to the back of the site and at a
conceptual level, this made some sense to us. kind of like that first option. We have two opposing civic buildings facing each other. Route 28 divides them and the town common is is in between them. And that's a pretty common
typology in towns. You know, you see a town green with important buildings around it sometimes facing each other. And so that made some sense to us. Although we had some reservations about the distance of that site from Route 28 and accessibility. It's accessible from
the access road certainly, but but again it felt a little far. But we wanted to explore this a little bit. So we developed two options. Um and you'll see um all of the options by the way are uh that that we're going to be talking
about tonight are um are illustrating a singlestory building. So this is this represents to scale on this site what a 22,000 ft singlestory building would be. The reason we think singlestory makes sense is we have the room to do it.
Singlestory buildings are much more efficient than two-story libraries for two reasons. One, staffing is more complicated on a two-story library. Um, it's always difficult to think who's going to be upstairs, who is it that's
going to have to use the elevator and the stair to get where they're going. You know, do you inconvenience families and kids or do you inconvenience adults and seniors? Um, it's always a little bit of a trade-off. A one-story building is universally accessible without any issue. Um, it it kind of puts everybody
on a level playing field. Uh, it doesn't obligate you to maintaining an ele paying for an elevator, maintaining it, paying for stairs. Um, and so there's a kind of uh efficiency really to a single story building. All of these are looking at singlestory layouts and all of these
also um are colorcoded and I I don't think you can read the labels here probably on the screen. So I'll I'll give you the the cheat sheet. Yellow is adults. Uh red is community. Light blue is children. That kind of medium blue is
lobby. And then the two small spaces, the green and the kind of grayish blue are teens. The green and staff. Um, all of these schemes are are kind of three wings effectively or radiating around a
lobby. Um, and and we've done this for a couple of reasons. One, the the width of all of these bars is about 50 ft. And we find 50 ft to be a convenient number in terms of planning or at least a good starting point. 50 ft is about as far as
you want to go with a simple span. Column on one side, column on the other side, no columns in the middle. Um, you want column free space because you want flexibility. You want to be able to put stacks and furniture wherever you want them. You don't want to have columns in
the middle. This one is a great uh case in point that create obstructions that make laying out furniture and stacks difficult. Um, and so that 50 ft is a is a reasonable dimension um that gives you a lot of room to work. Uh the other
advantage is that with a 50 foot wide wing, you're you're never more than 25 ft away from windows, natural light, views, and we think that's really important, especially in public libraries. So these are as a starting point, these are all set up as a kind of 50 foot wide wing. And so there are
these kind of longer, more attenuated within each of these wings. It's not just one big room. This this yellow shaded area is made up of I think probably 10 different spaces more actually. Um some will be big, some will
be small, small study rooms, big open reading areas. Um but we've kind of grouped all of those rooms into a single um single sort of colored bubble for the purposes of these diagrams. So all of the schemes that you're going to see are are taking the same approach. So this
first scheme um puts the lobby in the middle. It's accessible both from a drop off on the access road and from parking. Um we think that there's an opportunity uh a duty almost to connect this building in a meaningful way to Route 28
and to town hall. If you're a town hall, you're here to do some business. Having the library across the street can be a really good benefit. You can kill two birds with one stone. Maybe you have business in both. Maybe you're going to a meeting at the library. Maybe you just want to check out a book or meet with a
friend. Those kinds of relationships between public buildings we think are important and should be encouraged and and um enabled in a way and made walkable. We think there's so much happening at this intersection that we
think a crosswalk uh granted it's a state road and that that's a heavy lift, but a crosswalk and and a a meaningful connection from town hall to the library is worth exploring and we think helps connect the library to the town in a way
that that we think is important. For that reason, putting the library all the way back at the back of the site feels a little bit far for us. Um, but what we like about this is that we think the library uh organization works well.
Communities, the community room and actually all of the community program and all of our libraries really is designed to be accessible off hours so you have maximum flexibility. Um, we want the library to work in a way where you can close the library program areas,
children's room, teen room, adult room, but still have access to uh meeting space, multiple meeting spaces, different sizes, bathrooms, a kitchenet, all the things that go along with that program that make that usable and um and available to the town even when the
library is not open. That's I think a common thing in in all of our public library projects. It's a priority for the MBLC. And so all of these schemes take that into consideration. In this case, uh the lobby and the community
wing would be accessible off hours. The other two wings would be securable on either side of the lobby. Um and this community space would be accessible both from a drop off and from parking. Um moving on to the next one. This is just a different arrangement of program.
But what it's starting to do, and as you saw in a couple of the previous examples that we showed you, like Eastam or Norwell, it's using the building to start to define some outdoor space. So even though this faces a kind of larger open landscape, we're suggesting that
this immediate landscape of the building has a different character. It's more intimate. Um it's immediately accessible in this case from the community wing here. the adult wing, the children's wing. Um, and and so we think that's both a visual amenity, but also a
programmatic amenity. Uh, in this diagram, the lobby is at the corner. Again, equally accessible from drop off and from parking. Um, here the community wing is more visible. It's you can see it from Route 28. Uh, it's kind of on this path that that we're showing from
town hall. Um, and so it's a little bit more accessible than in the previous um, illustration. So once we did that, and as I said, we felt both of those were a little far for our comfort level um, back away from
Route 28, we started thinking about the town common. Now, we are not the designers of the town common, but we know that what we do is going to set the stage for what comes later. And we think the town common is a really important thing for the town and it's an important
part of a successful library ultimately. I think that that kind of activity next to the library we think um has a great uh great relationship. Um we cannot take credit for this suggestion. This is this is from a 2008 study that was done uh
for the town common which is closing this section of Wood Road. Wood Road actually connects out to 28 here at the sort of wide end of this triangular property. Um, what this does, it's a simple move, but it eliminates one of
the curb cuts along 28. There are a lot of roads kind of coming in all at the same place in this area around town hall. So, it simplifies the traffic patterns a little bit, but I think more importantly, it puts the town common
fully on route 28 instead of just at the tip of it um kind of touching 28. So, it it gives that town common greater presence. Again, we're not the designers of the town common, but but we want to tee up the town common for success, and we think it makes for a more successful
library. The other thing is we think that this is a tremendous amount of area and gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of setting that up for different sized events from seaside festival to smaller events that you might have. And when you look at this, you see, you
know, that makes sense that that's a very rational open green space. And what's left is a little bit less defined. It's got the curvy access road. It's got this stand of trees, which we'll talk more about in a minute. Um, and so we actually saw this side area as
really uh great potential for the library. And as I said earlier, we look for things in a site that are those opportunities that we can um kind of grab on to for inspiration. And we see two. One is the the long edge of this
this kind of seam between what we see as potential library buildable area and Town Common. that frontage on Town Common, like the Webster Library we talked about, we think is really important. It helps activate the common and it helps um it helps bring life to
the library, too. And it and it makes the library really visible to see the library across town common with an important frontage along along the green. Um we think is a is a positive thing. The other thing that we gravitated to, as I mentioned already
when we first were out there, is that grove of trees in the southeast corner, um, it doesn't look particularly special. It's a little bit overgrown underneath, but it's actually quite nice. Um, it doesn't have a much of a middle story. So, if you cleaned up some of the bittersweet and the poison ivy,
it actually is a pretty pleasant little grove. It gets natural light. Um, and right now, aside from the trees on Wood Road, it is the only shade that you can get at at this at Simkins Field. Um, and how nice would it be for that to start
to to be one side of some open space that that is formed by the library and these trees to create a kind of more intimate space. So, we saw these as as a good starting point for exploring options here. Um, one last thing about
the town common. We do think that there's an opportunity, and again, we're not the designers of the town common, but we think there is a real opportunity here to um improve the town common, but also improve the Simkin School residences. Frankly, it's
very exposed back here behind the Simkin School residences. There's nothing between them, the asphalt parking and and this expansive field. And it feels we were there on it wasn't even that hot. It was in the low 80s and it just felt kind of scorching back there. And
um a line of trees, a simple line of trees between the parking lot of Simpkins and the field would provide a little bit of shade. It would give you something green to look at aside from moan grass. Um and it starts to create a little bit of a buffer between public
activities and private residences. Um, we even think that, you know, there's plenty of room to create whether it's paved parking or it's overflow parking, some additional parking with another layer of trees. Again, more buffer between the residences and the activity
of Town Common that maybe provides some additional parking for the ball field or for special events. And again, that doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be paved. But um all this to say that we think that there's there's room for improvement to the town common to the
residences behind without compromising the use of those fields. It's still leaving a a very large open space for for all kinds of events. We also think improving the the landscape buffer along the west side would in in a similar way
benefit the neighbors um and kind of buffer them from the activity of of the town common. Um so from there we're going to look at three options that are focused on the area that I just described. So the first one again like
the others it's a kind of spoked arrangement a radial arrangement radiating out from a central lobby. In this case um we've located the community and adult wings on this long edge of the town common. So really great frontage
possibly even covered uh outdoor space that's usable when the library is not even open by you know people that are at a fair or something. There's some shade that they can use. Um the library becomes a kind of backdrop for those sorts of events. Um but it's also space
then that's available to patrons when the library is in use. It puts the community wing uh up front. It is public. It's visible. It's easily accessible. Um it's a short walk, you know, across the road and and into that space or into the reading garden, into
the lobby. Multiple points of entry here. Uh again, a centrallylo lobby that gives you access from parking, uh pedestrian access if you're coming from Route 28, access from uh town common, and then from that central point with
sort of central oversight, you have the adult wing, children and teens and community radiating out. So the community wing and children's wing then forming this L with the trees start to shape outdoor space which has a very different scale and character than the
much more open town common and that we think that would be a real benefit for the library. The trees create a sort of natural environment that's nice to look at. Um it provides some shade. It provides some noise buffer from 28 and it makes that space I think um special
and unique to the to the library. Um the other two are kind of variations on on this same idea. So a lot of the same uh ideas. It's just slightly different organizations. This one uh keeps the adult wing on the green. It
puts the entry porch at the corner. Um, so again, covered outdoor space adjacent to the town common, access to the entry and lobby from parking, but also potential pedestrian access either along the town common side or through the
garden into that lobby space. Uh, here the community wing is is located in this uh in this wing. Again, easily accessible off hours from parking with um securable wings for adults and children and teens.
uh and and again using the building to kind of start to shape this kind of private uh landscape for the library. And then lastly, again a similar approach, but this one takes a different attitude about the community room and
and more assertively puts it kind of pushing out into the town common. So makes this more public. It's it's not taking a backseat. that's kind of out there saying this is an important uh piece of of building for the town that
is clearly visible. You see what's happening as you drive by when there are events at night. Um you see activity. It has great access to um to this landscape. Um and it and the the rest of the building is doing a lot of the same
things that we talked about with kind of creating outdoor space, putting the lobby in a strategic location with um supervision of of the various wings. Um so before we open it up to questions, I just want to make sure everybody
understands where we are in the process. Building projects take a long time. Um we are at the very beginning of a long process. This is a six-month study. We're already a month in, month or so in. Um, as Judy said, we're we're due um
at the end of December to submit a package to the MBLC. Uh, there are specific requirements that demonstrate that we are complying with the grant. Uh, they review it to make sure that we've complied with the grant. There's a little bit of give and take during that review period where they ask us
questions. They may ask us to make a couple of changes before they say, "Okay, this is good. we're comfortable with this. Um then it moves on to town meeting and the hope is that a yes vote at town meeting allows us to continue into design. Um at that point the NBLC
would release their funds. Um and at that point we start uh which is here in this bar chart 12 months of design. So we have six months of preliminary design that's happening between now and December. We're anticipating another
public forum uh sometime between now and then um again to to solicit uh feedback. But even after the MBLC review, the town meeting, um there is still 12 months of design with multiple opportunities for
community engagement along the way. So this is the first but certainly not the last opportunity that that we have to hear from the public what things are important to them, what they like, what they don't like. Um, this is not meant to be a voting situation, but we want to
hear what people think. We want to take questions. Um, sort of set the record straight on on any misconceptions and use that to help us develop our work to submit to the MBLC in December. Um, after the 12-month design period,
there's usually two months of bidding uh where we select a contractor and then roughly 18 months of construction, give or take. So that puts us opening 32 months after town meeting assuming we start right away. Uh which is I can't do
the calendar math that quickly. That's it's about 3 years, right? So puts us into late 2028 early 2029 I think for opening. So we are at the very beginning of a fairly long process which is
typical for us but maybe not for everybody in the room. So with that we are happy to take questions. These are the the five schemes that we just talked about. They are also on the boards. Um so thank you. >> Okay. So what we're going to do now is
open it up for questions first from you folks here in the room and then I think we might have a question from on our online participants. and when we finish the questions, we're
going to kind of break up and just meet you around these various they're all the same, but there there are two in here, one in the hallway, and we'll float around and chat with you. If you have other questions, uh if something's not
clear about the presentation, we can fill in some details if we can. And um we do encourage you to fill out any kind of comment that you have. So it it was very interesting. We had a similar
session this afternoon and the comments that we got uh some of them I don't think we would have anticipated at all. So that's the beauty of this kind of a session is that you draw attention to things that haven't yet occurred to us.
So, so I'm going to open up the podium uh to anyone who would like to ask a question or make a comment. >> Yes. Yeah. And please identify yourself when you when you come up to the mic.
>> Hi, my name is Dr. George Bavino. I'm the chair of the library board and I am so excited and we are so excited about this. The only question I have is the access from town hall to the library. How tough is that going to be for us to
get that done? >> You mean across the street? >> Yes. >> So, I have been in touch with um Amanda Lima, who is our town engineer. Uh it's going to be tough because it's a state route. Um, so that's why I wanted to give her the 30 whatever month lead time
that it it is. Uh, and we may not get what would be ideal for crossing there. So, we may still be, you know, >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Uh, doing that to get across the street, but she has been alerted to that also to
um sidewalk conditions on the south side. I don't think the sidewalk right by the field, but as you get over to the trees, it's very narrow and overgrown, and you know, you would have to almost balance your way on that sidewalk, but
it's there. Um, so those would be things that um engineering and highway in the town departments would be interested in, but also DOT, >> right? Are there other options that we could look at or we don't know that yet. uh what somebody was saying to me, a
bridge or a tunnel. >> There we go. There we go. Perfect. >> Well, thank you. Well, we're very excited about this. Thank you for your presentation. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Stephen Singer. I actually had a great idea about that. >> Um I recently saw a story on
>> Excuse me. Did you identify yourself because I didn't. >> Steven Singer. >> Stephen, thank you. Um, I recently saw a story about the designer of the Zum Bridge who also did a pedestrian walkway in Boston Common. >> Yep. >> So, has anyone thought about a
pedestrian bridge? >> Well, so we haven't yet because our focus, our charge from the select board is to carry the library project forward to um develop a a library for the whole town.
>> Sure. And um I love the Achenham Bridge. So that's very cool. >> I I one thing I want to say related to the crosswalk and I mean it is a state road. It's nothing is easy dealing with
the mass DOT and I I suspect a crosswalk is an easier lift than than a bridge. Um, but I I I don't want people to to think that whether that crosswalk or bridge or tunnel happens determines
whether or not this is a successful library. It isn't. But we feel as good architects, good urban designers that you have to sort of call attention to these things and say this would be great if you could do this. And if you can't
do it now, fine. Maybe you figure out a way to work on it and it happens later and it becomes part of a more walkable Yarmmouth. We think that's important. And so these incremental steps are important. If the library gets built, maybe it gives you more leverage when
you're talking to mass dot that you know you have a real problem now, right? We want to get people from A to B. So it I don't think that that makes the project any more or less success. Well, I mean it would be great, right? But I think the library can be
successful without that. And the hope is that at some point that connection is strengthened because we do think there's an opportunity there. >> With regard to that, your uh plans are very impressive. >> Thank you. >> Um and thank you.
>> Thanks. >> Thank you. I'm Phyllis Venberg and I serve on the disability commission with the town of Yarmouth and we work very successfully with the engineers of the town um the project to uh redo Route 28
>> because at the corner where the Olympia restaurant is, they're going to reconfigure that whole intersection supposedly and there was a problem with accessibility for those buildings on the corner. So we had we called the engineering department up and they actually presented themselves to our at
our meeting and they took our suggestions under advisement and reworked that whole intersection with accessibility to those uh different businesses. So I'm thinking that why could and you folks do the same thing with DOT say that we have a potential
issue here and we're building this great, you know, beautiful building. We want people to be able to access it. So while they're reconfiguring the highway, why couldn't they factor that in? Maybe put one of those blinking pedestrian crosswork signs or something. Mhm.
>> So, I mean, this is the time to do it, >> you know, not till it's all done, but while they're doing all that construction on 28, have them think about that as well since this project is obviously going forward, you know, we want to make it accessible at the same time.
>> For sure. >> So, that's a curb cut for wheelchairs and also maybe that blinking, you know, pedestrian sign. So this is the time before they re how long that's going to take but you know do all that section 28
once and for all address it now with them. >> So tell me when you where you were in your prog in your um project when you initiated this contact. >> There was probably about three months ago. Um
they did a zoom meeting with us at one of our meetings. >> Mhm. >> And the engineering firm that was working with the DOT for we particularly reconfiguring that intersection I guess. So they went back to their drawing board and came up with a solution that met
everyone's needs. So they're very receptive because like as you said sometimes things aren't visible. You know if you're not directly involved with something it doesn't impact you directly but it impacts other people. So that's why you need voices. >> Mhm. >> But I was really impressed that they
actually listened to our concerns and we did it because that also involves the entrance to the West Dennis Bridge and all of that. So that whole mess is going to happen um will be hopefully not as messy at the end of it, you know, and
accessible. So it's not going to impact those businesses because they were going to reconfigure and this the curb cuts and the height blah blah blah blah, you know, didn't take all that into consideration. But then they did. They listened to our concerns and they said, you know, you're right. So they went back and they redrew the plans and
they're going forward with a new set of designs. So I just thought, you know, bring it to the forefront now and have them incorporate all that, you know, not at the end, but work with them in the process. >> Okay. >> Good suggestion. >> Thank you. Well, and also
congratulations on successfully doing that. >> I know. I was really impressed. I can't get Kate credit because Gail Sheret who was the former chair I'm a chair now was she's disabled so this is very dear to her heart and she you know looked at all
the plans closely and she said you know this is not right and she went out and contacted this building company this design company and they were very receptive was really impressed that they were really willing to sit down and listen to us to our concerns and and go the extra mile and rework it so that
before any more money was sent and have to redo something. It was done right the first time or hopefully it will be done right the first time. So, you know, thanks to Gail. She really, you know, took it to heart and and made a difference. >> Thank you. Thank you so much.
You can go up again afterwards. Hi, Maria Dolbear. I have a question on number four. What is the gray area that's >> kind of around the community?
>> Yeah. >> Um >> I'm thinking it's inside the building. >> I think it's >> not an open area. >> Um can you do you mind pointing on this on the screen? I took a picture.
>> Do you mean this space here? >> Oh, it's I I mean >> these are diagrams. So, it's that I I think she's talking about um let me just go back to that option.
Oh, I don't have it here. So, I'm sorry. Uh she was talking about this space here, this kind of interstitial space between the different blocks. We don't know exactly, but it's some sort of it's circulation. It's >> it's indoor.
>> It's indoor. Okay. >> But, you know, we need a way to get from the lobby to children's. And so, if you imagine this as a glass corridor that has, you know, views of the garden on one side and accessibility to the garden, but uh space, you know, rooms on the other side. It's a single- loaded
corridor that's getting you back to the children's wing and access to community wing. That's what it's suggesting. These are not building plans by any stretch yet. They're they're we're kind of playing with getting things in the right place. And then the next step is to
start to develop whichever one or couple of schemes that we think are the the leading contenders to develop those further with actual building planning and laying out specific rooms and corridors and all of the things that support those uh
architectural planning. These are more sort of site plans. Well, and then I noticed because of the layout being different between three and four that number four is goes all the way to the east
versus like that one that's up there now is a little further west. >> Mhm. >> So that would just be outdoor space >> you're talking about here. The fact that there isn't a wing here whereas there was in the previous
>> Yeah. It would it would be landscaped. >> No, you're on number five. >> Uh um >> so it be but it would >> Mhm. >> number three there. That's the difference. It's a wider area between the blue
over to the road >> here to here. Yes. >> So that would just be outdoor space. >> It would be Yeah. I mean it would be landscaped. I don't know. It would be It would be green. >> Okay. um not paved, >> okay, >> landscaped. >> To her comments, working with
disability, I have family and friends that use walkers, rollolators, and as we go around town, they prefer being able to get right into the building. Sure.
>> Not to have a distance. And that's what it looks like. This is pretty close by. >> Yeah. And all of these were trying to position the the entry close to parking in any of the schemes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Did you >> One more question. >> Sure. >> Two more questions. >> I'm Phyllis Venberg in case you don't remember. Um question number one. Does it make a difference in the cost of the project whether it's closer to 28 and further back? in the cost of the project.
>> Well, yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> I I don't think so. I mean, it's the same size building. Maybe there's a little bit more sight work because you want to create a path that's connecting point A to point B.
Um, you know, to get you from the road back to the library potentially. But but I think that would really be the only difference in cost. I I don't imagine that there's a really a cost difference between any of these.
>> So the only entrance would be the access road that's currently there. You're not going to build another road. >> We're not going to build another road. No, the access >> I have friends that live on Silvin >> and which butts again like like this, you know, so they're like, "Oh my god, you're not going to No. Okay. So I can tell her rest assured it's going to be
the access road." I I I will say one sort of asterisk to the they're all essentially the same. The the top two I think require more immediate investment in additional
landscape to make them successful than the bottom three do because the bottom this this exists. These exist none of these trees do right in in these schemes. that even if these trees weren't there or or if we had to plant
these trees to help provide some relief, we're not doing as much planting. Whereas you look at this, you really need more investment in landscape to make the library feel kind of integrated into something and not just a kind of
repetition of the condition that is currently behind the Simkins where it's just a building, a parking lot, another parking lot, a building. you need that landscape buffer. And so I think those two require a larger investment in landscape to make them successful.
>> Now going forward, I mean um you talked about eliminating that Wood Road, so that would make her street a dead end. >> Um I I'm not Well, Wood Road actually connects out here as well,
>> you know, cuz she Wood Road goes out to Old Main Street, 28 to Old Main Street. So, Silven Way, where she lives now, she can take a right and get out to 28, but she wouldn't be able to. >> Um, >> there's >> that's what we did the other day, right? >> So, that end of Wood Road would be a
dead end. So, you're going to have two Wood Roads. >> I think this might be it here. This is the outlet from Wood Road. >> Yeah, it goes behind that. Um, >> it's a straight shot, don't I? >> Oh, it Well, it's not the dentist. It used to be over there.
>> Simpkins Field, right? Well, the Kinling Grover, whatever it is now, it's condos or something and they have access from their back parking lot and there's a little exit there. We went driving around there. We went down Silven Road
and then made sure we could get out onto 28. So, yeah, it goes straight out. So, eliminating that angular road. So you can get right out beside the Ken Gro. You you would be able to get out through the Kinland Grover building because that's >> we did it. I don't think I did anything
illegal. >> Well, I just know I just I thought that was a parking lot for that building, you know, and that there was a back entrance to their their lot >> or you can access their building from 28. That's what I thought. >> Yes. Yes. >> I didn't think it was a street,
you know. I don't know. But anyway, okay. I'll just let her >> again that the I think I said this before but that you know closing that section of Wood Road and squaring off the future town common doesn't have to be part of this project. It's in fact it's not right. It's not that's not in
our budget. Um it's again it's a kind of observation as I said we we tend to overstep our bounds a bit and and look beyond the site because because we think we first of all we can't help ourselves cuz we're designers but um we think those things make projects better and so
you can always tackle them as part of this project but knowing that that could make a better town common I think is worth talking about and it doesn't make the library less successful. if we can't do it or if we can't do it now. Um,
>> no, just at least I can go home and tell her there's not going to be a road behind her house, >> right? >> She'll sleep. >> Pretty safe. >> And Steven's back. >> Steven Singer again. Uh, two follow-up questions touching on what you were just
talking about. As nice as your design is with all that landscaping and trees along the borders, didn't you say earlier that you're not designing the town common? >> We are not. Okay. So that's all theoretical. >> Well, the >> we should only really concentrate on the library. >> We should, but the there there is a
landscape component to a library project, right? >> Of of course. >> Right. So So what I was saying is in order for libraries here and here to be more successful, they need an investment in landscape that doesn't exist.
>> Sure. >> And and I think these already have some landscape that they can capitalize on. They need a little obviously they need some landscaping. It's not we're not you know >> we're not saving all that money in landscaping but but there is a bigger
investment we think in the first two to make them successfully feel integrated into the site. >> Okay. Secondarily, you mentioned it was starting out at 24,000 and it's now 22,000. >> Can you address that? >> Yeah, we so the
>> good question. the building program. Um, and this is true whenever we start a a project like this, any project. Um, in this case, there was a firm that was hired about a year ago to develop a library building program. We get that document, it's usually a
couple hundred page document, and we sort of try to digest it. First thing that we noticed was when they translate that the the written document and all the written descriptions of each space which include area requirements, square
footages, they then usually um compile that into a single page spreadsheet that lists all of those numbers and adds it up at the bottom. And there were math errors. So that was the first thing, correct the math errors. Um, second
thing was there were there were some conditions that seemed unusual to us like there were there were 10 single occupancy meeting or study rooms that were only 37 ft which doesn't actually meet accessibility in terms of how you
lay out a room. And so we knew that they needed to be 50 square ft, not 37 ft. And so are we doing 10 at 50 square ft and increasing the size of the building? Are we reducing the number? And there was also there were gaps between you know there were a lot of single
occupancy rooms and there were some rooms that were for tw 10 or 12 people but there weren't rooms in between for a group of four or so it was that kind of thing and it was it this was not just us this was working with the staff um and working with the NBLC and we had had a
couple of rounds of combing through the program asking questions getting clarifications from staff getting input from the NLC and that led Plus the math corrections led to tightening up things by about 2,000 square feet. It's not a huge amount in a 22 to 24,000 foot
building. But but every square foot costs money and so it's we think it's a positive thing that it's slightly smaller but still accommodates the the the the goals that the program set out to to do. So that's that's effectively
what we've been doing on the program for the last several weeks. >> Wonderful. And are you as the committee going to share with us? Do you have a preferred of these or do you not want to do that now? You want our input? >> Oh, we don't because we we will be
meeting later this month because we wanted to collect the input from um the public and you know open we'll still be collecting it until we meet again on the 28th. So any any comments that come in
digitally or by snail mail um however they come we will incorporate those into our conversation. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Thanks >> George Bino library board. I use the library every week. I want you to talk
to me about parking. Is is there extended parking now with this Um, what what is it you want to know about parking? >> Is there going to be more? >> Well, there is going to be >> Yes. >> Parking always ends up just ruining the
conversation, you know. >> Sorry. I'm sorry. Go back and sit down. >> No, parking parking is always a little bit of a dance between what the zoning bylaw requires, >> what the site allows, and and what seems reasonable.
>> Right. Um, I was on the planning board in my town for about six years and we as a board um never were that comfortable with the zoning uh requirements for parking in a transit oriented town. I live in Brooklyn, Massachusetts, which is has a
great transit system. We're close to Boston. So, why are we building so much parking when we have this, you know, that and you know, whatever you might think about the tea. Um, it's and and so we were always open to looking at ways to reduce parking. who >> but provide enough parking so that
people aren't complaining that they can't find parking, >> right? >> And so, like I said, it's a little bit of a dance between satisfying zoning requirements um and and zoning doesn't typically list libraries in their parking in in the uses, right? It's
usually it falls somewhere in between business use and assembly use. And assembly use usually is things like movie theaters and restaurants where there's a high density or churches where there's a high density of seating. >> Sure. >> Um and they so they do one car for every
three occupants. And if you use that logic, it means you have a tremendous amount of parking for a library that really doesn't need that much. The MBLC uses uses a different metric which is one space for every 400 square ft. So,
uh, if it was a 24,000t building, that's 60 spaces. That feels like a reasonable lot. >> I'll just get there early. >> Thank you for your answer. Thank you for your answer. >> Yeah, that's a lot more. >> With regard to that,
I think you need to factor in the the common. >> Yeah. >> And all the parking and the use in the common and not necessarily just in the library. >> Yeah. because you don't want all the library spaces being filled up with people not using the using the common. >> Yeah. >> Um >> so a couple of things I'll point out
related to parking and this is early. We haven't spent a lot of time thinking about parking and we need to we we've got to come up with that number that we can try to go to the town and say does this work? Does this meet your your requirements? We've sort of held this as
the place for library parking. We don't know how many spaces that yields yet until we start laying it out with our civil engineer. Um, I mentioned this earlier. I think there's an opportunity without really compromising the use of town common. I think there's an
opportunity to gain some additional parking and this is about the same size as the Simkins lot. So, I don't know what that parking count is, but you can see cars here. That's a pretty good number of spaces. Um, and that could be paved parking. It could be reinforced
grass that is overflow parking for events. Similarly, there's a pretty goodiz lot behind the Bridgewater State Building. Um, you could easily double the size of that again either with paved parking or with reinforced turf for
overflow parking for town common events. Um, I didn't mention these, but these are this is actually two individual lots behind uh lots that are on Old Main Street here that are part of the town owned property. Um, half of that is
wooded, but it allows us to even potentially get a little more. So, I all of this to say I think there's room to get parking. I think there's plenty of room to get overflow parking for big events where you don't want paved parking, but you want to be able to get a bunch of people for the seaside
festival to park here and and then paved parking for the library that's adequate for its needs, including, you know, special events and, you know, programming that might have 130 people and and that kind of thing. Um but again for those things maybe taking advantage
of some of these other um these other outlets Dolber again you had said at the beginning that there were uh interesting comments at the meeting earlier today. Were there any that we haven't asked
that would be to share with us? Um, I think since the committee hasn't um already seen this ha hasn't seen this yet, um I'm going to not share those, but tune in on the 28th when we review
them. Okay. Um, so does and >> we lost people. >> Yes. Am I >> too >> But is that red at the bottom? Is that someone with their hand up? I can't tell. No, >> know that. >> No, nobody has their hand up. Yeah.
>> Okay. So, no one online. >> None of you are interested in speaking. >> Okay. I'm not seeing any interest there. All right. So, what we're going to do then, and first of all, thank you for all your
wonderful questions, and I love the energy and the coming back to the podium. That's great. Um, so, uh, stake yourself out at one of these, uh, display easels and we will float around and see if we can answer any additional
questions and explore any of these ideas more completely with you. And I think I have some housekeeping to do just because um, we did have a quorum. So, I just need um, a motion to adjurnn. >> I'll make a motion to adjurnn.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. All in favor? I >> opposed. >> Abstained. Motion carries. So, we're closed with this part. We're moving into our informal part. Thank you. >> Recording stopped.