Middlebury's new main library opened on June 28, 2004. Designed by Gwathmey Siegel Architects & Associates, the 143,000 sq. ft. facility boasts 725 study seats (enough for 30% of the student enrollment to have a place), a completely wired and wireless network infrastructure, key service points immediately accessible from the spacious lobby atrium, five state-of-the-art classrooms, ten group studies, and offices for staff members supporting library and technology, as well as the Center for Teaching, Learning and Research .
The new facility comprises 3 acre-sized floors that hold book, journal, microfilm, microfiche, and media collections, numbering more than 1 million items. Study seats include custom-desiged reading tables, chairs, and study carrels, along with lounge chairs and recliners.
Senstivity to environmental concerns and sustainability are paramount. The carrels, reading tables and chairs, book stack end panels, and architectural trim all use certified lumber, much of it harvested from the College's Bread Loaf campus forest in nearby Ripton, Vermont. Linoleum rather than plastic or vinyl is used for counter and carrel surfaces, and the carpet is made entirely of recycled fibers. Automatic lighting controls and an efficient heating and air conditioning system minimize energy use. New England firms were contracted whenever possible, including Island Pond Woodworkers in Vermont's northeast kingdom for manufacture of the carrels and end panels, Windham (Maine) Woodworking for millwork, and Beeken-Parsons (Shelburne, Vt.) for reading tables and chairs, with Lee Kennedy Co., Inc. (Boston) providing construction management.
As with all major construction projects at Middlebury, special funding is applied to art work. Besides exhibiting art from the College Museum's permanent collections, outside the new library The Garden of the Seasons by Michael Singer was commissioned; and hanging high above the atrium is Matt Mullican's mural L'Art d'Écrire .
The new library replaces the Egbert Starr Library, constructed in 1900. It will be renovated to house the Axinn Center for the Humanities, planned for opening in 2007.