New Building: A Community College’s Library Is Also the Community’s

Lorain County Community College’s Library and Community Resource Center (Sasaki Associates Inc. photograph)

Lorain County Community College’s new 86,000-square-foot Library and Community Resource Center, designed by Sasaki Associates Inc. with Osborn Engineering, is not only a library and classroom building for the college, but also a branch of the Elyria, Ohio, public library. The $22-million building’s functions meet in large, open spaces across three levels. A glass curtain wall fronts on a new outdoor plaza and frames a grand circular stairway; a second-floor bridge links the building to the rest of the campus and features a coffee bar, encouraging socializing among students and the larger community.

You can search for this and other recent campus libraries in The Chronicle‘s online database of new buildings and renovations.