The original library planning committee met in 1995, with membership drawn from the library staff, information technology services, and the faculty. Students joined the committee as it continued its work over the next four years, issuing a report and recommendations to the administration for an expansion of Starr Library in December 1998. In 2000, after further study, the College decided to build a new facility on the site of the old Science Center on Storrs Avenue, with capacity for significant collection growth over the next 20 years, as well as flexibility to accommodate a number of emerging multimedia and information technology services.
The 1998 planning document included these broad recommendations that provided the basis for the design of the new building:
Flexibility and adaptability must be the watchwords of the design of all spaces in the renovated and expanded Starr. As technology evolves at an accelerating pace in the period through 2020 for which this building is being planned, the building must be able to adapt to the need for continuous improvements in learning technologies. Future generations of students and faculty will come to Starr with very different expectations and backgrounds from those of today's users. We must always keep in mind that the building being designed now must serve the needs not just of today's college students, but of today's third-grader, who will be a Middlebury student 10 years from now and a Middlebury faculty member 20 years from now.
Within the context of flexible, adaptable, and forward-looking space, the Starr project will also give us the opportunity to acknowledge the College's past and the intellectual heritage that is housed within the building's walls. A creative and sensitive renovation of the existing spaces will allow us to restore to their true beauty and dignity some of the rooms in the original Starr Library beloved by generations of alumni. These spaces, built at the time of the College's centennial and now to be renovated as a major project supported by the Bicentennial Campaign, will demonstrate continuity of function while incorporating adaptability for the future. Although the new Starr will be a technologically-enhanced building, its principal function will still be providing accessible stack space for the College's collection of books, journals, and other printed materials. The new library will also provide quiet and contemplative spaces for individuals to read and work, in an inviting environment that will be climate-controlled and well-lit. It will integrate the renovated and new spaces in as seamless a manner as possible.
The renovated and expanded library will be part of the College's developing "campus center" plan. The area between Starr Library and McCullough is intended to become the hub of campus activity, the place where centralized services and functions are available to residents of a decentralized, Commons-centered campus. Placement of the library within the "campus center" recognizes the importance of the library as one of the College's principal academic buildings. The new library should have a welcoming, lively entrance area, one that draws students and faculty in to the intellectual resources contained within. Through the dignity of its design, consistent with the tradition of Old Stone Row and looking forward to the College's third century, the library building will make a bold and public statement about the importance of the academic endeavor as the central activity of Middlebury College.
Much has changed at Middlebury in the past twenty years, and much will change again in the next two decades. Yet, throughout the past two centuries, there have been constants at Middlebury College: among them the pursuit of excellence through disciplined intellectual inquiry, and a recognition of the importance of the liberal arts in developing life-long habits of the mind and habits of the heart. Middlebury is now poised at the beginning of its third century, and the College's aspirations for itself have never been higher. Over the next decade, we intend to become one of the nation's truly distinguished residential liberal arts colleges. We have come a substantial way toward this goal in recent years. The renovation and expansion of Starr Library will provide Middlebury College with a library building that is consonant with the aspirations we have for all of our activities: to achieve excellence, and to sustain that excellence in the years ahead for the generations of library users who will come after us.
Trustees Resolution, May 2000
In May 2000 the Middlebury College Board of Trustees adopted the following resolution:
That Gwathmey/Siegel be engaged as architect to develop a design for the College Library on Storrs Avenue on the site of the Old Science Center.
The Board has weighed carefully and within the larger context of College facilities needs the option for siting the library. The Board believes that the Storrs Avenue site not only provides the best location for the library but also allows the College to proceed more swiftly to address other institutional academic and residential facilities needs.
This decision involves site only. It does not represent approval of a particular design or a specific location or footprint, nor does it assume how much of the existing Storrs Avenue structure may continue to be used. This decision does carry with it the expectation that the resulting design will fully accommodate the approved program in a building of genuine architectural distinction.
Trustees Resolution, October 2000
In October 2000 the Middlebury College Board of Trustees adopted the following resolution:
It is moved that the administration be authorized to continue library planning with the following understanding:
The program as defined by the Library Planning Committee is accepted as proper for the college
The Library should be sited on the Storrs Avenue site, as recommended by Gwathmey Siegel in their presentation to the full Board on October 20, 2000
The design, as presented by Gwathmey Siegel, is accepted, recognizing that refinement of specific elements will continue
The budget for the total project will be $40 million
The administration will report progress at each meeting to the Buildings and Grounds Committee and the full Board when appropriate.
Project Milestones
April, 2001
Town of Middlebury gives preliminary conceptual approval to the project College begins Act 250 process
March, 2002
Ground-breaking
June 28, 2004
Library opening for summer language schools
October 10, 2004
Library Dedication
Committee Members (2001)
Glenn Andres, Professor, History of Art and Architecture (Chair)
Dean Cadoret, Director of Media Services
Carole Cavanaugh, Asst. Provost/Assoc. Professor of Japanese
Eric Davis, Secretary of the College
Barbara Doyle-Wilch, Dean of Library and Information Services
Elizabeth Endicott, Director of East Asian Studies
Meghan Foley '77, Senior Development Officer
Julia Herwood, '04
Nan Jenks-Jay, Director Environmental Affairs
Michael Lynch, Systems Librarian
Thomas McGinn, Project Manager, Facilities Planning
Jeff Rehbach, Director of Information Technology Services
Linda Ross, Assistant Director for Custodial Services
Shel Sax, Director of Instructional Technology
Joanne Schneider, Asst. Librarian for Budget and Collections
Kathy Skubikowski, Director of Writing Program
Roberto Veguez, Professor of Spanish
Richard Wolfson, Benjamin F Wissler Professor of Physics
Seth Zoracki, '03
Ex officio members:
David Ginevan, Executive Vice President of Facilities Planning
Robert Huth, Vice President for Administration and Treasurer
Ronald Liebowitz, Provost and Executive Vice President