The Adams Street Branch Library Opening!

Posted on August 2nd, 2021 by Nicole Sakr

Posted under: _Adams Branch Library, Events, Press

The new NADAAA-designed Adams Street Branch Library has opened in the Adams Village neighborhood of Boston. We are so pleased to see this project completed for the Dorchester community!

Mayor Kim Janey and leadership from the Boston Public Library spoke at the opening on Saturday:

I am thrilled that the new and improved Adams Street branch will once again provide an accessible, inclusive place for the Dorchester community to gather, learn, and grow. My local library played a huge part in my upbringing. Libraries like the Adams Street branch continue to bring joy and essential services to residents of all ages.

– Mayor Kim Janey

We’re thrilled and we hope the community will be, too. The old branch was much-loved, but this completely new building certainly raises the bar.

– David Leonard, President, Boston Public Library

Local press on the Adams Street Branch opening:

The exterior of the 13,450-square-foot building is striking, its sharp angles finished with glazed terra cotta panels and copper. Inside, the space is brightened by floor-to-ceiling windows that offer substantial views of the surrounding neighborhoods, a lovely rock garden, and beyond to the Blue Hills. Overhead, the undulating ceiling is accented with wood-beam baffles meant to mimic the peaks of the roofs on neighboring homes. 

– Bill Forey, Dorchester Reporter

New Adams Street library ‘raises the bar’, Dorchester Reporter

Editorial: A victory for libraries, Dorchester Reporter

Mayor Janey & Boston Public Library Announce Completion Of $18.3 Million Reconstruction And Reopening Of The Adam Street Branch, Patch

Comments Off on The Adams Street Branch Library Opening!

Call to Artists: Public Art for the Adams Branch Library

Posted on August 18th, 2020 by Nicole Sakr

Posted under: _Adams Branch Library, Things We Like

The City of Boston, through the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, is inviting artists to apply to create a permanent public artwork for the Adams Street Branch of the Boston Public Library.

The City released the Call yesterday and there will be a Virtual Q+A on Wednesday, September 9th. The Deadline for submissions is Wednesday, September 16, 2020. To learn more, check out the Call to Artists HERE and more information can also be found HERE.

Comments Off on Call to Artists: Public Art for the Adams Branch Library

Adams Branch Library and Ca’bliconica receive 2019 SARA National Awards for Unbuilt Architecture

Posted on November 8th, 2019 by Nicole Sakr

Posted under: _Adams Branch Library, Awards

Comments Off on Adams Branch Library and Ca’bliconica receive 2019 SARA National Awards for Unbuilt Architecture

ADAMS WINS SARANY DESIGN AWARD OF HONOR

Posted on July 17th, 2019 by Dara Lin

Posted under: _Adams Branch Library, Awards

The Adams Street Branch Library has won a Design Award of Honor in the Unbuilt and Theoretical Projects category. Find it in the SARANY 2019 Journal HERE!

Comments Off on ADAMS WINS SARANY DESIGN AWARD OF HONOR

ADAMS STREET BRANCH LIBRARY BREAKS GROUND

Posted on July 11th, 2019 by Dara Lin

Posted under: _Adams Branch Library, construction

On July 10th the Adams Street Branch Library in Dorchester officially broke ground! Mayor Martin J. Walsh, along with the City’s Chief of Operations Patrick Brophy, Boston Public Library president David Leonard, and members of the community, including the Friends of the Adams Street Branch Library, gathered to celebrate the start of construction.

Mayor Walsh spoke to the undiminished importance of libraries in serving all members of the community and called the planned renovation “truly a library of the twenty-first century.”

NADAAA’s proposal for the Adams Street Branch Library renovation.

Boston Public Library President David Leonard commemorates the occasion.

Key team members, from left to right: Mayor Martin J. Walsh, BPL Major Projects Coordinator Lissa Schwab, NADAAA Project Architect Amin Tadj, BPL Major Projects Program Manager Alison Ford, PFD Project Manager Jim McGaffigan, NADAAA Project Manager Michael Schanbacher, PFD Assistant Director Tom Leahy, PFD Assistant Director for Design Paul Donnelly, and Mayor’s Office Chief of Operations Pat Brophy.

Pint-sized library-goers take part in the ground-breaking.

Read more about the renovation and Mayor Walsh’s plan to improve the Boston branch libraries HERE.

Comments Off on ADAMS STREET BRANCH LIBRARY BREAKS GROUND

JOIN US FOR THE ADAMS BRANCH GROUND-BREAKING

Posted on July 8th, 2019 by Dara Lin

Posted under: _Adams Branch Library, construction

The Adams Branch Library officially breaks ground on Wednesday, July 10th! NADAAA, alongside Mayor Martin J. Walsh, the Boston Public Library, and the Boston Public Facilities Department are excited to celebrate the start of construction on the new library in Dorchester.

Join us at 690 Adams Street in Dorchester at 5:30 pm for the ceremony, followed by a community celebration featuring the Choco-leles, who will lead a ukulele sing-along. Learn more about the the project development HERE.

Comments Off on JOIN US FOR THE ADAMS BRANCH GROUND-BREAKING

Adams Branch Library Preview!

Posted on April 1st, 2019 by Nicole Sakr

Posted under: _Adams Branch Library

NADAAA is working with the Boston Public Library and the Public Facilities Department to design a replacement for the Adams Street library branch in Dorchester.  Construction will begin this summer!

The neighborhood scale is largely residential with mature trees and inviting sidewalks.  The new building picks up on the scale of the surrounding houses, colorful Victorian painted clapboards, and a busy main street that connects Hemenway Park to Gallivan Boulevard.

The new program is twice the size of the previous branch, and the generous three-sided site allows for a single-story building, maintaining porous connections to the street and improving the accessible approach. While Adams Street serves as the Library’s front door, there are prominent elevations on Oakton Avenue to the north and Delmont Street to the south. A single pitch monumentalizes the façade on Adams Street, while a breakdown of peaked roofs creates a diminutive scale more appropriate for the side streets.

The folded roof is composed of a series of ruled surfaces, the result of a simple series of striated beams running east/west.  Pitches point toward rain gardens, both along the eastern property edge and within a court of native plants at the south. 

Effectively a mat building, a southern ‘cut’ brings light and air deep into the core of the footprint. On the north, a Reading Garden will pay homage to a space cultivated and maintained by the Library’s Friends, respecting a grand Pin Oak that will continue to dominate the corner of Oakton and Adams, as well as become a visual focal point for the Library’s interior.

Comments Off on Adams Branch Library Preview!