Madison, SD (In Progress)
Before Karl Mundt became a long-time member of U.S. Congress, he was a 1919 graduate of Madison High School and an educator in Bryant, SD. His namesake library on the campus of DSU in Madison, SD, was completed in 1969. Nixon addressed 10,000+ at the dedication ceremony. Fifty-seven years later, the library is undergoing a two-part interior renovation to better meet the needs of today’s students.
The first phase of the project involves renovating the library’s basement level, which currently serves as a reading room and quiet study area. While spacious and generally functional, the area’s finishes are dated. The space is relatively program-less, lacking the varied seating, zoning, and technology typically found in a modern library. Phase 1 (rendered below) seeks to address all the above with a full refresh of mid-century finishes plus new, varied uses of the space. Students will have their choice of semi-private nooks along walls, private study rooms with dimmable lights, a conference room for group work, or a lounge – The Den – for open study. Book stacks will be relocated from the library’s second floor to reinforce the basement’s quiet study environment and free up space on the second level. With construction underway, students should have access to this updated basement soon.
The second phase of work (still in design) will address the rest of the library – the ground level and second level. In the end, the library experience will follow something of a vertical social gradient: quiet in the basement, semi-social on the ground level, and most social on the second. Natural light and high-volume spaces on the ground and second levels will make for a light and airy feel, distinct from the basement. Fewer book stacks on the second level will create new programming opportunities upstairs. This broader variation in spaces is once again about student choice. Given the chance, students will naturally gravitate toward the spaces where they feel most comfortable learning.
By the end of phase 2 construction, the interior of the Karl E. Mundt Library will be transformed into a student-centered learning environment with all the fixings of a modern library. Something the former educator would be glad to see.
