Pike County Public Library
Milford, PA
Project Details
Client: The Milford, Pa. Public Library
MHE Engineering provided planning, design, engineering (structural, civil, mechanical, plumbing & electrical), with the assistance of consultant David Wieboldt, architect. The building is a 2 story building with 6,030 square feet per floor for a total of 12,060 square feet. The building structure is Integrated Concrete Formwork (ICF) walls with structural steel beams and interior columns supporting a floor structure of precast concrete planks. The roof structure is cold formed metal framing with a deck of gypsum panels for fire resistance and topped by plywood and asphalt shingles. The interior walls are cold formed metal studs with gypsum board finish. Portions of the exterior walls directly adjacent to the large aluminum bay windows are also cold formed metal stud framed to facilitate the fastening of the windows to the ICF walls. The ICF walls have multiple benefits to the library, the first is the reduction in sound transmission from the outside creating a quiet reading environment. The second benefit is concrete walls with a high R value for energy efficiency. The exterior finishes of the building are a combination of EIFS with a stucco finish directly adhered to the ICF insulation with the remainder of the building finished using cementitious horizontal clapboard siding. The building owner chose not to make this a LEED certified building, however, many sustainable design features were utilized to make the building as energy efficient as possible within the client budget constraints.
The plan of the building was configured with the stacks of books placed on the main floor, separated into adult books, children’s books and reference sections. The main floor also contains reading carrels, public access computers and staff office spaces and the main check out desk. There is a large wrap-around porch on the north side and east or front of the building, which provides an outdoor place to read. A sloped walkway that enters the porch on the north side connects to the Harford Street sidewalk for accessible egress. Accessibility for those arriving by car is gained at the rear, parking lot side building entrance by way of an interior elevator. The lower level of the building contains a community meeting room, mechanical and electrical and sprinkler pump rooms, as well as storage and future additional book stacks and circulation space.
The building utilizes day light harvesting features to minimize the energy usage for the electrical and lighting systems. The building is covered by a full sprinkler system. The building is heated using a natural gas fired boiler and ventilation is provided via air handlers.
The engineering and architectural services provided amounted to the standard range of services provided and included the following: building code analysis, energy code analysis, design, planning, interdisciplinary coordination with the structural engineers, process engineers, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, plumbing engineers and electrical engineers. The work performed also included a coordinated set of construction drawings & specifications as well as bid phase services and construction phase administration services.
