Archives

1. Songdo International City Library Design Competition

   MSR Design’s design competition submission for the Songdo International City Library proposes 21st-century library services in a series of 24/7 spaces connected to the public park system. The dramatic engagement of a spiraling park connects all four levels of service together through outdoor public programming that can operate day and night. A central community core and high performing building enclosure ensure daylight reaches all library spaces and promote connectivity between generations. The flexible library spaces between the community core and park areas are designed to accommodate active and passive activities, while allowing direct access to information.

2. Louisville Free Public Library Northeast Regional Library

   Located adjacent to a historic house and landscape, Louisville Free Public Library’s third regional library brings service to an outlying region of the city. Conceived as a pavilion in a park, the building offers sweeping views of the park and historic site. It features a special technology-driven classroom, highly flexible reading room, makerspace with audiovisual lab and demonstration kitchen, and a college corner in the teens’ area. A column-free interior, multi-function access flooring, and rooms enclosed by movable furnishings support adaptability to meet perpetually evolving library demands and ambitions. Sustainable design strategies contributing to the building’s LEED-NC v.3 Gold certification include siting the building to take advantage of natural daylight and a geothermal mechanical system, among numerous others. Circulation for the first month of operation broke the library system’s previous record by 25%.

   MSR Design collaborated with architect JRA Architects and landscape architect MKSK.

3. Norman Public Library Central

   Together with the new Norman Public Library East Library, the new central library furthers the city’s “Norman Forward” citizen-initiated goals to fund and create quality of life projects for the community. It serves as a new town hall with shared community spaces, conference rooms, a technology lab, a genealogy research workspace, and a multipurpose room that can accommodate a range of events. The new library provides highly flexible spaces for collaborative learning, new education models, digital literacy, and information sharing, including a makerspace. Sky and plinth design elements represent the intersection of Oklahoma’s iron rich topography and open sky of the prairie. The courtyard features a specially commissioned sculpture entitled “Unbound” created by London artist Paul Cocksedge. Registered for LEED-NC v.3 Silver certification, the project features a range of passive design strategies, including a visible stormwater management system with interpretive signage to educate visitors about the process, optimized daylighting and shading, and orientation of the building on the site to mitigate solar gain.

    

4. Orono Residence

   The design evolves from the agricultural legacy of the site’s fields and fence rows interacting with a new stone wall to establish precincts for new uses: windbreak, orchard, garden, lawn, and pool. Chosen to age gracefully, irregularly-cut courses of New York bluestone predominate the house inside and out. The stone contrasts with reclaimed materials, such as Douglas fir structural beams, teak flooring made of reused railroad ties from Africa, and antique ceramic tile and fireplace mantels. Gable rafters change slope along the length of the house, forming an S-shaped ridgeline that evokes an image of a sagging barn roof to represent the passage of time.

5. Norman Public Library East

   The first of two new libraries designed by MSR Design for the Pioneer Library System, the Norman Public Library East branch offers a new community experience inspired by Oklahoma’s iron rich topography, dramatic weather, red dust, and prairie. Located in an area previously without library service, the new building features highly flexible spaces that support collaborative learning, new education models, digital literacy, and information sharing. Registered for LEED v. 3 Silver certification, the project features a range of passive design measures, including a visible stormwater management process and local xeriscape plantings, orienting the building on the site to mitigate solar gain in summer, a thermally treated exterior, and clerestory windows that bring in daylight and direct light to the main entry sequence.

    

6. Louisville Free Public Library South Central Regional Library

   This library in the trees is the second of three new regional libraries to be added to the Louisville Free Public Library system as part of the facilities master plan prepared by MSR Design. A delicate insertion into a grove of trees, the building stands out in a region of Kentucky where clearcutting sites is standard practice. Tree preservation, daylight harvesting, and energy conservation serve as design guiding principles. The design team oriented the library on the site to take advantage of forest preservation, optimal solar access, and stormwater management. Areas for reading and gathering extend into the landscape through planned contemplative views and seating in the parking grove. Certified LEED-NC v. 3 Gold, the project includes a range of energy-saving measures.

   MSR Design collaborated with architect JRA Architects and landscape architect MKSK.

    

    

7. Paper Mill House

   Sited to be understated as visitors and guests arrive, the structure promotes strong visual connections to the site’s beauty. Flexibly designed with separate dwelling and entertainment wings, the home accommodates comfortable gatherings for groups ranging from 4 to 200 people. Spaces can also be easily closed off and scaled by furnishings to provide intimacy. The house is designed to use 70% less energy per square foot than a standard home, and with the planned addition of hydropower and solar technology, it should achieve near net zero energy consumption.

8. Aeon the Rose Housing

   This new housing complex includes 47 affordable and 43 market rate apartments, underground parking, and various indoor and outdoor community spaces. Using the Living Building Challenge (LBC) as a framework in the process, the designers placed equal emphasis on providing equity and beauty, meeting SB2030 goals for reducing energy 70% below baseline, reducing water use by 50%, and not significantly increasing construction costs over a conventional building. The design incorporates many small measures that add up to significant gains in each of these areas.

9. Aeon the Louis Housing

   This project involved transforming a brownfield, industrial site in the Prospect Park neighborhood near the Minneapolis/Saint Paul border along the light rail transit Metro Green Line into 63 affordable apartments and 7 market-rate apartments. The site is part of a larger stormwater management district developed through the Prospect North Partnership. Our site was designed to provide stormwater collection and infiltration for a several block area. The district is also an urban village experience with pedestrian-oriented design and high-density livability. Amenities include a community space, conference room, secure courtyard with a play area, bicycle storage for every apartment, and a fitness center. The project received Metropolitan Council TOD funding and MHFA LIHTC funding by complying with Enterprise Green Communities standards.

10. Carleton College Weitz Center for Creativity

    The Weitz Center serves as a working laboratory for creativity—not only in the arts, but across the entire curriculum. It positions the college as a national leader in arts programs by creating an environment that fosters creativity, critical thinking, collaborative working skills, and cross-cultural exploration. An adaptive reuse and expansion of a former middle school complex, the center houses the departments of studio arts, dance and theater, and cinema and media studies. It incorporates classrooms, studios, a teaching museum, performance spaces, and state-of-the-art collaborative spaces.