Framingham, MA, 1974-1979 by Huygens and tappé
In the 1960s, Framingham realized its library system had a problem. Since its humble beginnings with the Edgell Public Library (now the Framingham History Center) built in 1876, the system had grown into a number of branch libraries scattered throughout the city with no unifying central location for residents to rely upon. In 1963, while the town attempted to find space downtown, they built an expansion behind the Edgell Library in Framingham Centre as a temporary solution. But in 1970, the site of a shuttered school was chosen to become the new central library due to its proximity to the newly adapted Danforth Art Museum (now the future Framingham Regional Justice Center) and a developing public center downtown.
A study was done in 1974 by the fledgling Huygens & Tappé architects and the building began construction a few years later. The structure was organized into three levels with a lower level sunken only 6 ft in the ground allowing natural light in and views of a sunken garden for the children’s space. The main floor is defined by an interior street through the building connecting the two raised entrances. The circulation desk juts out into this street and sits below the two story atrium giving it prime real estate from both levels.
The exterior has a monolithic quality to it, with massive brick forms facing Concord Street and the parking lot (originally a multi story garage) spanned by banded glass windows below sloping lead coated copper roofs (now painted blue) to connect with the domestic architecture nearby.
The building is very much, as former employee of Huygens, Ed Hodges, puts it, a “Time Capsule” of sorts. The original Alvar Aalto inspired wood, brick and white pattern still defines the interior spaces and while exterior renovations have been made, most notably a light steel entry pavilion by Abacus Architects to account for the new entry circulation without the garage, the distinctly European Modernism of the facade still shines through.
Sources:
“Framingham Central Library, New” MACRIS:Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System: 2019, 1979.
Hodges, Ed “TIME CAPSULE” Dimella Shaffer Blog, 2015.
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