Willmar Public Library

Location: Willmar, MN
Total Square Footage: 44,000 sq ft
Construction Cost:
Completion Date: 1999

The original Willmar Public Library, built in 1966, was part of the government campus in the downtown area. The 44,000 sf expanded Library facility, completed in 1999, houses a variety of new and unique functions including a new multi-purpose room, comfortable public reading spaces and the administrative offices for the Pioneerland Library System. The addition is planned with the future in mind; the Library’s collections now have expansion space anticipating 25 to 30 years of growth.

Architecturally, the issue of the addition’s perceived presence is resolved with seamless fluidity, by way of replicating and repeating the existing building’s featured wall elements (random-coursed granite) throughout the addition’s main level. An aluminum and glass window – all vocabulary weaves through these “panels” as a contemporary fabric – links them with each other and emerge as both a new second story and a circular entry element. This palette of contrasting materials defines an architecture that speaks, at once, of a delicate balance between old and new and “reinterpretation,” as a singular, clear vision.