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Phoenix firm wins commercial Benedictus Awards for design of new Phoenix Central Library

The Phoenix, Arizona-based architectural firm, bruderDWLarchitects, has won the commercial category of 1996 DuPont Benedictus Awards for Innovation in Architectural Laminated Glass, for the design of the new Phoenix Central Library.

Phoenix Central Library: south view at night, showing illumination in grand reading room through computer-controlled louvers

The Phoenix Library, with its signature fabric sails shading the all-glass north face, is a technial tour de force that welcomes light and then extends light into the building through the innovative use of laminated glass. It was designed by William P. Bruder, principal of bruderDWLarchitects of New River, Arizona and engineered by Ove Arup and Partners of California. The glaziers were B&B Glass for the exterior and Double SS Glass for the interior of the library.

Public elevators of laminated safety glass rise out of a black reflectant pool on the floor of the 'crystal canyon' [a 8.5-by-14.6 meter (28-by-48 foot), glass-sided central atrium] and their shadows animate a scrim of laminated glass which is further energized by colored headlights. The adjacent staircase, wrapped on three sides by the same laminated glass, rises 18.3 meters (60 feet) like a Japanese paper lantern, enveloping its inhabitants in soft light. The glass used appears to possess the qualities of a shoji screen, causing reflections, silhouettes and light to activate the space within and around the staircase, and the innovative use of colored PVB interlayers imbue the light with a dynamic liveliness.

Reading room: skylights suspended above the termination column

The skylights in the great reading room, on the Library's fifth floor, resemble six-foot, circular pools of sky in the roof. This perception is achieved through the use of glacial ice tint to perceptually cool the space on hot, desert days while diffusing the direct light of the sun. There is a 100mm (four-inch) clear lens located at the solstice center of each skylight which permits a direct ray of pure sunlight to penetrate the lens and roam about the reading room throughout the year, falling upon the very top of the Library's columns, which terminate just before they reach the roof, at solar noon on the summer solstice (June 21) each year.

Interior of main staircase, showing laminated glass panels from other side

The panel of judges commented: "We usually think of going to a library to learn from the collection in the library, but this is an opportunity for people to learn from the library itself about shelter and light. Mr. Bruder has offered the building itself as pedagogy, teaching us about the unique climate and light in Phoenix, allowing light to enter indirectly, protecting us from the harsh summer sun in Phoenix and organizing structure and glazing in a new way."