Tiverton, RI – The new, 24,000sf Tiverton Public Library officially opened to the public in June, replacing Tiverton’s outdated Essex Library, which closed after serving the community for over 70 years.
It is over 20,000sf larger, and features a café, community meeting hall, children’s library, young adult room, adult reading room, administrative offices and a board room, and exterior public courtyard spaces. The sustainable project was designed to achieve 50% better energy usage psf than the old library, and to meet the criteria for both National Grid’s Advanced Building Program and LEED Gold.
The new library was designed by Union Studio Architecture & Community Design and built by Behan Brothers Construction. It was designed to be the cornerstone of a growing community center and its primary meeting place, with close proximity to the local middle school, high school, and a skate park located adjacent to the site.
“In the first 15 days that the new library was open, we have issued 416 new library cards — this is more that we normally issue in an entire year,” says Ann Grealish Rust, director of Tiverton Library Services.