Firms selected to design new downtown library

The team of Washer Hill Lipscomb Cabaniss Architecture of Baton Rouge and Schwartz/Silver Architects of Boston has been selected to design the new downtown library. WHLC, which has done several downtown projects, including the II City Plaza office building, and Schwartz/Silver, which designed the Shaw Center, were picked by the city-parish Design and Planning Selection Board, composed of local architects and engineers. One of the firms they beat was Trahan Architects, the Baton Rouge-based firm that was involved in studying and planning for the new library. Mary Stein, assistant library director, says WHLC and Schwartz/Sliver intend to spend a year working on the design for the new branch. Some of the work done by Trahan as part of the feasibility study may be used in planning the design, or it may be wholly redone. “This is going to be a collaborative project between the city-parish, us and them,” she says. Plans are to build a downtown library that is a “campus center for the city” and a “community catalyst,” Stein says. Plans are to demolish the existing River Center branch and replace it with a new $21 million building. —Timothy Boone