Welcome to the 2021 Library Design Showcase, American Libraries’ annual celebration of new and renovated libraries that address user needs in unique, interesting, and effective ways. That this year’s slate features building projects completed during the pandemic makes them even more noteworthy. Despite libraries being temporarily closed or operating at reduced hours because of COVID-19 restrictions, beautiful new facilities and innovatively renovated spaces continued to open to the public over the past year and a half. As in recent years, renovations and expansions took center stage, highlighting the novel ways that communities are honoring existing structures while moving them into the future.
Higher learning
D. H. Hill Jr. Library at North Carolina State University in Raleigh
Lord Aeck Sargent transformed D. H. Hill Jr. Library into an open, light-filled facility with…