Lawrence Public Library among 7 ‘most beautiful’ in North America

The Lawrence Public Library is getting lots of design love this week.

The striking building at 707 Vermont St., which completed a $19 million expansion and renovation in 2014, was one of seven in North America to win a 2016 Library Building Award from the American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association.

Architecture geeks have been gushing about the glass and terra cotta-clad Lawrence library ever since. Tech Insider dubbed it one of the “most beautiful libraries in North America,” and The Huffington Post called it “gorgeous” and “the future of book lending.”

The Lawrence Public Library was originally built in 1974. Its award-winning makeover was the work of design firm Gould Evans, which has its largest office in Kansas City. According to the AIA, Gould Evans transformed the library into a “multimedia community hub” with a wraparound reading room that “provides a high-performance thermal envelope engineered to harvest daylight and reduce energy usage.”

Other amenities include cubbies for children, teen gaming zones, communal meeting spaces, quiet rooms, a music recording studio and a coffee bar. Exterior features include a butterfly garden with benches and a lawn area used for ice skating in the winter and outdoor movies in summer.

According to the AIA, the renovations paid off in a big way: “Within a few months of reopening, user visits increased 55 percent, with youth program attendance up 160 percent.”

Other 2016 Library Building Award winners include the Chicago Public Library in Chicago and the Hennepin County Walker Library in Minneapolis.. View the complete list here.

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 3:46 PM with the headline "Lawrence Public Library among 7 ‘most beautiful’ in North America."