With the Gregory library, Adjaye has created a shimmering pavilion at the edge of Fort Davis Park in the southeastern part of the city. The two-story, steel-frame structure, 23,000 square feet in size, both blends in with its wooded surroundings and distinctively stands out from them by virtue of its sleek, glass-enclosed, 24-foot-high volume tucked underneath a muscular, louvered aluminum canopy. Floating above the pavilion, the dark-gray canopy brings the library's height to 35 feet and bolsters its commanding presence in the neighborhood. In addition, it cantilevers 20 feet from the south entrance facade to provide a needed sunshade in the summer.
A diamond motif characterizes the library's curtain wall where the glass lites vary in width from 5 to 8 feet'an 'expansion and contraction that reflects the notion of growth, like the forest,' says Adjaye. Just behind the limpid glass exterior surface, an open web of diamond-shaped plywood modules subtly asserts its presence on the outside. The modules, 1 foot 3 inches deep, contain the actual structure of the curtain wall'an X-shaped steel diagrid next to the glass with vertical steel supports backing it up. The exterior glass that skims by the plywood modules in this seemingly effortless structural exercise alternates between low-E, double-insulated panes allowing views out and spandrel panels with a mirrored finish on the inner surface that reflects the leafy trees. Where access to the library is needed, such as at the entrance on one end of the south facade, Adjaye has inserted portals of composite metal panels into the curtain wall'one of the few gestures that interrupt the strong concept of the luminously abstract glass pavilion.
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