Library branch wins design award

The Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Northside branch was awarded Columbus Landmarks’ James B. Recchie Design Award.

NBBJ designed the building at 1423 N. High St. in the University District, which Landmarks lauded for its “bold form” with multiple areas for study, reading and research, plus community meeting rooms and public art.

“This building with its open and transparent design, thoughtful details like the lighting of the book collection which makes it the centerpiece of the building, attractive and comfortable places for a variety of activities that accommodate a diverse group of people, and the dramatic but appropriately scaled streetscape presence create the best of what a 21st-century neighborhood library can be,” Columbus Landmarks said in a statement.

“It’s a tough decision,” said Nancy Recchie, a historic preservation consultant with Benjamin D. Rickey & Co. and sister of the award’s namesake.

Recchie said the Northside branch is a good example of what libraries have become. No longer fortresses, they are now open and transparent.

“This is a beacon for the neighborhood,” she said. “The dramatic design, the glass, a combination of all those things that I really like.”

In 2017, the renovation of the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Main Library Downtown was a Recchie finalist.

The other four finalists for this year’s award were: Dorrian Green, 50 S. Belle St.; The Julian, 272 S. Front St.; LeVeque Tower, 50 W. Broad St.; and Lifeline of Ohio Donor Memorial, 770 Kinnear Road.