Columbia Library

As part of the City of Seattle’s Libraries for All program, this was the a 5,400-square-foot, 1-story addition to the historically significant Columbia Library. The original 6,825-square-foot branch, which opened in 1915, is a Carnegie-funded library designed by W. Marbury Somervell and Harlan Thomas. It was upgraded in 1986. The branch is in the Columbia City Landmark District and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The addition was designed to respect the architecture of the original building. The project relates to the adjacent Columbia Park setting by putting the children’s area, new reading room, study room, meeting room and staff areas in the new addition. Each space has large park-side windows for daylight and great views of grass, trees and sky. Construction materials were chosen to complement, but not match the historical building.

Subsequent to the above renovation, SSF provided structural design to brace the unreinforced masonry chimney, add a new entrance canopy, and other miscellaneous work.