Project Data:

Completion Date:     11/30/2020

Square Footage:      62811

Building Use:           Public Library and Cultural Arts Center

Project Description:

The Yorba Linda Library and Cultural Arts Center is the culmination of a years-long community engagement process to expand and democratize access to both library services and public arts. Through a robust public engagement effort, the design team developed a new “civic heart” for this city of 70,000 people.

The new facility actively engages the street, deviating from small-scale suburban retail corridors that fueled downtown Yorba Linda’s post-war growth. Parking is pushed to the rear of the site in order to prioritize a pedestrian-scaled civic paseo. Rising from Lakeview Avenue and connecting to the new Town Center district, this generous, shared public space varies in width across the length of the campus, intertwining the Library and Cultural Arts buildings with outdoor gathering spaces, a misting fountain, and an outdoor amphitheater. This shaded space funnels and augments prevailing seasonal breezes, creating a microclimate ideal for day-to-day use, farmers markets and other weekly events, and cherished community traditions such as Holidays on the Paseo.

Architecturally, the 4.7 acre campus frames the paseo through the careful siting of a two-story, 46,000 square foot Library along the south side of the site. This larger building in turn shades both the paseo and the 14,000 square foot Cultural Arts Center. To unify the site, both facilities share an architectural parti that derives from the landscape of Yorba Linda itself. Two gently counter-sloping roofs facet and refract across the site, creating a dialogue that references the undulating foothills of the San Gabriel Mountain range that frames Yorba Linda’s northern extents.

Underneath these overhanging roofs, a series of lanterns project forward in both plan and section, simultaneously accentuating prime programmatic areas within each building and connecting with the landscape beyond the building envelope. The building itself is defined by a rhythmic series of walls, alternating between regionally sourced, warm and richly-veined quartzite stone rainscreens and storefront glazing. This materials palette is further defined by integrated horizontal and vertical architectural sunshades that respond to each respective building orientation, while providing shadow and relief to occupants.

The buildings provide a wide range of new community spaces. Creative integration of interior and exterior spaces allows for independent operations of the divisible meeting rooms, the dance studio, and even a shaded outdoor arts yard complete with electric kilns. Generous circulation spaces run along the paseo, further introducing activity and encouraging community dialogue in both formal and informal settings. The Library’s double-height entry lantern draws customers from the paseo into the first floor children’s area and up a grand stair to the second floor great reading room. The Arts Center’s entry lantern opens into the black box theater and a generous linear art gallery, physically knitting together visual, creative, and performing arts.

Through a holistic design approach, the new Yorba Linda Library and Cultural Arts Center has created an enduring, generous, and shared civic space, welcome to all.

Firm Name:              Group 4 Architecture, Research + Planning

Completion Date:     11/30/2020

Square Footage:      62811

Building Use:           Public Library and Cultural Arts Center

Location:                 4852 Lakeview Avenue Yorba Linda, CA 92886

Project Description:
Design for Integration: The Yorba Linda Library and Cultural Arts Center purposely reframes the community’s relationship to the landscape through intentional and deeply sustainable principles. Specifically, the two buildings are designed in concert to create a series of protected, human-scaled indoor and outdoor gathering spaces – a relief from the surrounding car-centric suburban experience. The natural stone material palette and angular architecture break free from the street grid, redirecting views to the natural topography of alluvial washes and dynamic mountain ranges. This holistic design approach integrates with community-derived principles of discovery, joy, and lifelong learning.

Design for Equitable Communities: The design of the site and buildings seeks to promote physical and mental well-being through both public resources and unique amenities. The Library and Parks Departments have collaborated on both the design and ongoing operations to provide equitable, accessible destinations for a full range of community interests. The Yorba Linda Library and Cultural Arts Center supports a breadth of traditional and new programs and services – genealogy and local history, crafts and maker activities, active recreation, performing arts, and more. All spaces are designed to be inclusive and spill out into the shared civic spaces of the paseo and amphitheater.

Design for Ecosystems: The composition of buildings and outdoor spaces creates a pedestrian focus in the project's heart and along its civic face, with parking choreographed to the less visible rear of the parcel. One hundred and ten trees on this five-acre site create shade for human comfort, modulate the heat island effect, and provide habitat. Native and drought tolerant plant species comprise the majority of planting. The project's pedestrian focus supports the ongoing transformation of Yorba Linda's historic town center into an ever more walkable and comfortable neighborhood in sync with the regional ecosystem.

Design for Water: Native and drought tolerant plant species supported by drip irrigation comprise the majority of planting, with the exception of the small-scale Event Lawn. Rainfall is slowed and cleansed by stormwater treatment basins showcased along the entrance drive, north building frontage, the Paseo side of the parking islands, and in the streetscape along the front of the project. The project team strategized with the City to calculate shared parking demand to reduce parking, to reduce impervious paving and increase planting and people spaces to enhance this community outdoor living room and reduce runoff.

Design for Economy: This taxpayer-funded project maximizes opportunities to minimize conditioned square footage. Specifically, the auditorium, arts studio, dance studio, and children’s reading space all have protected outdoor areas to extend community resources during and beyond opening hours. Within both buildings, very simple circulation systems create high net-gross ratios. In the Arts Center, rehearsal and studio spaces have direct access to the black box theater, and are able to double as staging areas for performances, eliminating single-use areas and reducing overall building size. Consistent, limited exterior materials provide opportunities for future reuse.

Design for Well-being: This unique project promotes comfort and health by providing direct connections to the natural environment, both indoors and out. Internally, all public spaces have views to the exterior. These windows in turn have integrated exterior sunshades (vertical or horizontal depending upon orientation) that reduce solar heat gain while increasing visual comfort through glare mitigation. All air handler systems exceed MERV 13 standards, providing a safe and healthy environment for indoor activities. In addition to these interior spaces, outdoor areas include spaces for creation, play, and sports, providing a singular destination for whole-body learning within Yorba Linda.

Design for Resources: The design team worked proactively to optimize the structural steel system – balancing overall tonnage with the client’s directive to not see any exposed structure. The design uses an efficient concealed brace frame structure to achieve both of these goals while significantly reducing embodied carbon within the design. Finish materials including the exterior stone rainscreen and interior wood ceilings were selected for regional proximity, and FSC certification.

Design for Change: The Library is designed for future change and adaptation through careful placement of brace frames along the exterior of the building whenever possible. Both buildings are designed for 50+ year lifespans, and ideally far beyond that timeline. The campus is PV-ready and mechanical systems are designed for further climate change, as well as wildfire smoke mitigation.

Design for Discovery: The Yorba Linda Library and Cultural Arts Center’s design process involved coordinating, and compromising, between stakeholders including the community-at-large, multiple city departments, an active City Council, and immediate neighbors. Additionally, the design team targeted this project towards Architecture 2030 goals. Finally, the project bid and was built during both the pandemic and a subcontractor strike. Throughout these various challenges, the holistic design approach allowed for successful project delivery. That said, we saw once again how clear communication is invaluable to ensuring that sustainability criteria foreground design decisions, both within the consultant team and externally with the client and community.

Design Architect:
David Schnee

Associate Architect or Firm:
David Schnee, Principal-In-Charge
Benjamin Irinaga, Project Manager
Andrea Gifford, Interior Designer
Jonathan Hartman, Project Architect
Daniel LaRossa, Project Designer
Nicole Ghiselli, Staff Designer
Kaifeng Zhang, Staff Designer

Landscape Architect:
SWA Group, Landscape Architecture

Owner / Developer:
City of Yorba Linda, Owner
Peggy Huang, Mayor
Carrie Lixey, Library Director
Jamie Lai, Public Works Director

Griffin Structures, Owner's Representative
Justin DiRico, Senior Construction Manager

Engineer:
GeoDesign Inc., Geotechnical Engineering
IMEG Pasadena, Mechanical and Plumbing Engineering
KPFF Irvine, Structural and Civil Engineering
O'Mahony & Myer, Electrical Engineering and Lighting Design

General Contractor:
Bernards, General Contractor

Consultant:
The Ruzika Company, Theatrical Consultant
Smith, Fause & McDonald, Inc., Acoustical Consultant
TBD Consultants, Cost Consultant

Photographer:
Nico Marques
Bill Tatham