While officials in Plainsboro are still in the planning stages for determining what to do with the current library building once the new facility opens, they will soon create a request for proposals from architectural firms to help design the improvements associated with the move.##M:[more]##
Once the new library, which is being constructed in the Village Center, opens, it appears the current building will hold the offices of the township’s recreation department, which will be relocated from its current small space on the bottom floor of the municipal building, and the current library will also be used to expand the department’s programs as well as open up more meeting space, says Township Administrator Robert Sheehan.
The $12.4 million library project broke ground last December, after a contract was awarded to H&S Mechanical of Elizabeth. It will be a three-story, 34,”000-square foot building. The library will hold 125,”000 volumes and provide informal reading areas, display space for art, quiet study rooms, 40 computer stations, a children’s section with a greatly expanded science/computer center, a local history room, administrative offices, storage space, and community meeting rooms. In addition, the library will feature a health education center and independent study rooms. Construction is scheduled to be completed sometime next spring or summer.
But not much was said about the current library’s facilities until last month. Still, “in very general terms, we would like to reuse the building in a way that provides the most flexibility possible so that all of the various uses and needs and programs that we support and sponsor can be accommodated,” says Sheehan.
Sheehan said the library space will be used for recreation and cultural affairs, but officials are “still very early in the process,” and no specific details have been determined.
Sheehan says there is no estimation as to when the RFPs would be sent to architectural firms for their help in designing the improvements to the current building, but he said Plainsboro officials want to make sure that whatever is done, the building codes are met, and that the design is architecturally sound.
The end product of the architect’s work will be a set of specific plans to send out to contractors so they can bid on them for the work. “There are no plans to renovate the outside of the library at this point in time,” Sheehan said. “There will be renovations and general sprucing up,” like carpets and the like, and officials will be doing the project in a way that is fiscally responsible, he added. “It’s not our intention to do significant modifications.”
Sheehan said the new library project has several benefits. The goal was first and foremost, he said, to create, “obviously, a library that can accommodate the various needs of the library’s patrons.” He said it works out that the new library will create a vibrancy in the Village Center area, and allow for the space in the former facility to expand community programs.
