Library picks architect for its new building
Stephen Tilly’s two-story design was chosen over two other submissions for a new facility.
WOODSTOCK, N.Y. >> The Woodstock Library board has selected Stephen Tilly as the architect for a new library and is looking at how to scale back and pay for the project.
Library board member and Building Committee Chairwoman Jill Fisher said Monday that the choice was made after a review of public comments about proposals from Tilly and two other architects.
“We looked at all the comment sheets that were submitted, and a lot of them liked more than one [design], but a lot of it was the enthusiasm that people expressed about the Tilly design,” she said.
Tilly’s proposal calls for a two-story building with an 8,670-square-foot first floor and 6,320-squarefoot second flood. The first floor would have a computer and video area, a children’s room, a history and archives room, a 75-seat presentation room, a conference room, and a storage are for the annual library fair. The second floor would have an art room, a computer collaboration room, a teen room, a creative space area, four classrooms, the director’s office, and a staff room.
The project, however, is expected to be reduced in size to meet town land-use requirements. Library officials are not sure what the new dimension will be.
Library officials also have yet to make plans for securing the estimated $5 million needed to construct the building.
“Our next big effort will be a capital campaign,” Fisher said. “Of course, there are people working to let the people of Woodstock know why we made the decision.”
Objections in the community to replacing the existing library, which is on Library Lane, off Tinker Street, led to a proposition on the town’s Nov. 6 ballot to dissolve the library district and turn the operation of the facility over to another entity, likely the Town Board. The proposition was defeated, 2,067-1,142.
Questions about how to improve or replace the library date to September 2007, when a proposed $1.14 million annual budget for the library was rejected overwhelmingly by voters who objected to the spending plan including money to avoid interest payments on bonds.
In 2013, library officials proposed construction of a 1,800-square-foot annex on property previously occupied by a coin laundry across the street from the library. The library purchased that property for $71,000 from Ulster County after the land failed to sell at a tax auction, but the annex plan was abandoned when the cost grew to $1.52 million.
New board members in May 2016 hired consulting firm ADG/Cohn, for up to $49,500, to develop a facilities master plan that officials hoped would lead to a decision about how to address the library’s shortage of space. That led to the board determining that replacing the current building was the best option.