Celebrating Progress on the Pleasant Hill Library
Set to welcome the Diablo Valley community later this year, the library will provide spaces for all ages within a light-filled, adaptive, and energy-efficient environment.
As construction on Pleasant Hill Library progresses and many of its interior spaces begin to take shape, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Principal Steve Chaitow and Project Manager Michael Kross shared exciting updates with the community in a recent town hall meeting, alongside Mayor Michael Harris, Councilmember Sue Noack, and City Engineer Ananthan Kanagasundaram. The project represents a significant milestone for the city as one of its first community buildings constructed in many years, and will provide a civic destination with dedicated spaces, tools, and technology to support community-centric aspirations.
Community engagement and dialogue were essential in creating this new public library, and the town hall was a timely reminder of how the project will support engagement and discovery when complete. Designed with short and long-term flexibility in mind, Pleasant Hill Library’s free-span central hall enables stacks to move with ease as needs change over time. Reconfigurable furniture provides subtle delineation between environments, while bringing warmth and color to the interior.
Smaller-scale rooms provide space for community gathering and interaction as well as quiet activities. Off the central hall, pavilions facing onto Oak Park Boulevard include the ‘messy makerspace,’ for directed creation including sewing, weaving and 3D printing, with adjustable worktables to suit a range of ages; a flexible, multi-purpose program area; and the ‘Retreat,’ intended as quiet space for reading, study, and writing.
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson is collaborating with Swinerton Management and Consulting, BHM Construction, Einwiller Kuehl Landscape Architecture, Margaret Sullivan Studios, and Etsuki Creative on the library. The project, which broke ground in September 2020, is adjacent to additional developments including new housing and a parks and recreation complex, and involved significant coordination between projects to mitigate floodwater concerns on an existing floodplain, coordinate pedestrian circulation and pathways throughout, and more. View photos of construction progress below.
