Baltimore, MD
Over nearly two decades, Ayers/Saint/Gross has been involved in renovation, restoration, and reorganization of the downtown Baltimore branch of the city-owned Pratt Library that opened in 1931.
The Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped occupies an adjacent site and provides books for the blind and physically handicapped. Ayers/Saint/Gross designed a building for this program, which primarily involves shipping and receiving, supported by a large area of closed book stacks. The program includes small reading rooms for the public and a browsing collection.
The design provides the prominence appropriate to an institution of civic significance, within the bounds of an essentially utilitarian program. The public portion is in a limestone-faced building topped with atrium-like windows. Large areas for the closed stacks, storage, and mechanical space are below grade.
Shipping and receiving occupy a one-story wing, above which the 45,000-gross-square-feet State Library Resource Center eventually was built.
Completion: 1992
Size: 47,000 gsf
Cost: $5.5 million
More Ayers/Saint/Gross projects for the Enoch Pratt Free Library:
