Capitol Hill Library

Guernsey served as the Architect of Record for the complete renovation and expansion of the Capitol Hill Library. The site was redesigned and the entrance was relocated to provide improved parking and make the facility more welcoming and accessible to the neighborhood. The library’s renovation and expansion design was inspired by an event that took place on the site in 1910 – the flight of the first airplane in Oklahoma. Throughout the library there are nods to aviation, from light fixtures that echo airplanes, to columns wrapped with images of turbines, to flowing window accents representing jet streams.

The facility was stripped down to the existing concrete structure receive necessary upgrades as well as to make room for the new addition which houses state-of-the-art library functions including a digital collection, the existing stacks, administrative and support functions.

The library features space for teenagers that includes a study area, computers, and booths; a fenced-in outdoor patio for children; 27 adult computers; and twenty iPads available for check-out. The library is also home to 3,000 Spanish-language books which is one-third of the entire system’s Spanish-language collection.