The reading room roof goes on

Last week the first cross-laminated timber panels went onto Arroyo Reading Room. Each panel is about 12 m long and was lifted from a truck on the park side, one every forty minutes, while the library trust watched from the fence.

Until now the building has been a brick base and a row of steel columns. With the roof on, the reading room has a ceiling for the first time, and you can see how much of it the high windows on the north side will light. Standing inside, it is already larger and calmer than the drawings suggested.

The panels were cut in the factory to within a few millimetres, including the openings for the roof lights and the ducts. That precision only pays off if the brick and steel below are just as accurate, so we surveyed the column tops twice before the first lift.

Timber cannot get wet for long, so the roof was sequenced to be covered with a temporary membrane the same day. The contractor kept two panels back for a dry forecast; there was one morning of drizzle and nothing was lost.

Next on site are the windows and the roof insulation. The trust still expects to open the library in 2027.