Winter Park leaders OK library design

Some say complex is not big enough, needs more parking

WINTER PARK — City commissioners voted Monday to move forward with conceptual designs for Winter Park’s new library and events center, despite some blowback from residents who had concerns about its size and parking.

About 10 citizens told commissioners the $30 million complex wasn’t as large as they were first told and didn’t have enough parking to support the demand.

However, city leaders approved the preliminary design, noting that most of the comments they received were positive. Now the designers, led by renowned architect David Adjaye, will move forward on more specific and precise plans.

Winter Park resident Chele Hipp emailed commissioners a list of concerns for what she called an “incomplete design” and read them Monday, asking officials to consider having Adjaye go back to the drawing board.

“It needs to meet all of our needs, not most of them,” she said. “If choices have to be made, I choose [that] functional quality be chosen over design quality.”

The massive library and events center is slated for the same land as the existing Rachel D. Murrah Civic Center at Morse Boulevard and Harper Street. The 40,000-square-foot library was designed by Adjaye, who was named one of TIME’s Most Influential People for 2017.

As envisioned, the two-story library would be about 40,000 square feet with four arching windows providing sweeping views of the park. The adjacent events center is a square and positioned on the same plaza at an angle.

Adjaye, architect for the critically acclaimed National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., said his Winter Park library design was meant to incorporate the complex into the park.

Mayor Steve Leary said Monday that city staff and designers are still trying to find additional parking. The current plans call for 220 spaces, while city code requires about 150 spaces.

Commissioners also said the project was reduced in size from 50,000 square feet to about 40,000 square feet to im-