Turning a new page Brooklin library wins award for renovations

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Friend Memorial Library is a living monument to its past.

Its patrons don’t carry library cards, rather, librarian Gretchen Volenik knows them all by name. And the card catalog is organized not digitally, but on crisp cards, filed in a varnished oak cabinet.

Yet the tiny Brooklin library, whose Greek-revival facade had changed little since it was built in 1912, recently won national recognition for the innovative design of its 1999 renovation.

Elliott & Elliott Architecture, a husband-and-wife team based in Blue Hill, attribute the project’s success to a strong link with the community and its history.

“They didn’t want to lose the wonderful sort of small-town feel – there was a lot of angst,” Matthew Elliott said. “The challenge for us was to achieve all the things they wanted without losing the charm of the original.”

Friend Memorial Library is among eight libraries nationwide to earn the award from the American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association this year.

More than 160 entries from across the country were submitted, most representing multimillion-dollar projects submitted by large, well-known firms. Other winners included urban libraries in Los Angeles, Denver and Portland, Ore.

“Often, architecture is recognized for the things that are really out there – really big, really expensive, really different. It’s neat to be at the other end of the scale,” Elliott said. “This spoke to just doing things well. It’s subtle. It doesn’t have to scream, ‘I am architecture, look at me.'”

Though contributing to the community has been part of the plan since Elliott & Elliott was founded in 1994, the Friend Memorial Library was the couple’s first foray into institutional architecture, according to Libby Elliott.

“It was sort of a leap of faith on their behalf. We had to figure out the essence of the library and make sure it wasn’t lost in the project,” she said. “We had to take ourselves out of the equation, we had to listen.”

Volenik and other members of the library’s building committee wanted, above all, to preserve the cozy feeling that charmed famed writer and Brooklin resident E.B. White. The library’s artifacts, from Garth William’s original “Stuart Little” illustrations hanging on the wall, to the unmatched columns that flank the front door, remain.

“We didn’t want a huge library – we didn’t want this to become a white elephant,” Volenik said. “Maine should be really proud to be recognized for what we are, a lot of small, hometown libraries.”

“Libraries are a part of Maine people’s lives from the time they’re born until just before death, but people don’t always get to see what these little libraries mean to these towns,” she said.

Brooklin boasts a year-round population of about 800, but its library circulates more than 18,000 books each year – one of the highest circulations in Maine for a small town, Volenik said.

The library sits at the town’s heart, and community groups often use the space for gatherings. So when the library’s board of directors raised $350,000 for a long-overdue renovation, the building committee had a long wish list, including an art gallery, a private meeting room, a large programming space and more light.

But a big addition would have destroyed the building’s charm, Matthew Elliott said.

“It’s small and intimate, that’s what makes it so wonderful – it’s scaled to people,” he said. “Rather than build bigger and bigger buildings, it’s nice to build smaller but better. Maybe it’s living in Maine, but we like to do that, we like to be more efficient.”

So the Elliotts created an innovative, flexible space. Wheeled bookshelves nestle between fixed rows of shelving, windows that can be installed to create a private meeting area and display space, or removed to create a 1,400-square-foot room that stretches the length of the building.

“It’s like a puzzle; Can you find the pieces that work together?” he said.

The Elliotts envisioned wheeled bookshelves that slid into nooks and crannies, but were skeptical that the idea really could work, so they had a mock-up of a shelf made and the committee spent an afternoon pushing it around the library, to great success.

“The budget was tight, but that was what made the project as good as it was – we had to really prioritize and come up with a unique, thoughtful solution,” Libby Elliott said. “It turned out that the simplest solution was the best.”

The old, single-pane windows, which were removed from the outside walls were mounted internally to draw sunlight into the library’s heart, the lights were hung in Volenik’s office, even an old, wooden magazine rack was given a fresh coat of paint and revived as a shelf for picture books.

“There’s frugality, and there’s also nostalgia,” Libby Elliott said.

Local boat builder Doug Hylan designed and created the broad, curved librarian’s desk that greets library patrons. The committee wanted a curved desk to make the front entrance seem more inviting – Volenik’s old desk looked like a barrier.

But several cabinetmakers quoted exorbitant prices, so they turned to Hylan for advice.

“We’re used to curves – everything we do is curves,” he said.

Hylan spent countless spare hours working on the mahogany desk over the course of about three weeks, donating his time once costs increased beyond the $10,000 budget.

“It’s easy compared to boat work,” Hylan said. “Sometimes it’s a mental relief to do something like that with some straight lines.”

As each subsequent problem arose, the building committee offered solutions and made sacrifices to remain within its budget. Involvement was the key to the project’s success, Matthew Elliott said.

“We were working for the entire community,” he said. “We were committed to doing whatever it took to get it right.”