The Main Library
Stark County District Library, Canton, Ohio
Yes, this was built...in Canton. From the Canton Repository:
July 28, 1976 "Stark County District Library trustees voted to seek a grant for a new, $5 million public library to be designed by architect Arthur Marks on a lot donated by the Timken Foundation at Eighth Street and Market Avenue N."
June 9, 1979 "Arthur Compton Marks, the architect who designed the $6 million Stark County District Library, told Canton Rotary Club it would be the first major building in Ohio to be both heated and cooled by a solar energy system."
The 1975 Concept
Arthur Compton Marks, Architect
Marko during roofing.
Sweeping curves rise up to form peaks that hold arrays of solar collectors without shading the next southern slope. The the slope of the innermost peak is glass letting light into the solarium at the heart of the library. Marko thought of the concrete forms as solidified sand dunes, but maybe reporter James Hillibish's metaphor, "snow drifts," fits Canton better. The outermost curves contain the ramps to the parking garage that keep books out of the weather on the way to the car.
The 2001 Renovation
The library was renovated in 2001—every reason for it's form was erased. The parking garage leaked so it was closed off and turned into book space and the two sweeping ramps on the long sides of the building were closed. The solar heating didn't live up to expectations. It seems that in the same year as the 9/11 attacks a decision had been made that solar energy wasn't worth trying.
Facebook page for the library.
The 2001 Renovation
The original entry was closed off and a porch was added to the 8th Street side, complete with the standard Post Modern architectural pun of the steel column rising from its massive ancestor. Once inside the transverse entry is far more grand than what I remember of the old diagonal entry. The colors have been updated. A more prominent stair and elevator have been added and the plan is more closed off than the original.
