Arroyo Reading Room

Pasadena, California

A branch library with one large reading room under a timber roof.

A single-story brick reading room under a long timber roof that lifts toward a band of high windows, set among oak and sycamore trees beside a park path.

Type

Civic and cultural

Status

On site

Place

Pasadena, California

Year

2023–2027 (expected)

Area

920 m² / 9,900 ft²

Client

Elm Court Library Trust

Team

Ada Okoro, Daniel Cho, Lucía Herrera, Amara Diallo

Images

AI-generated imagery

Brief

A new branch library with a reading room, a children’s library and a community room that can open after hours.

Site

A corner lot next to a neighborhood park.

Approach

One reading room sits under a cross-laminated timber roof, lit by high windows on the north side. A brick base holds the children’s library and staff rooms. The community room has its own entrance from the park.

Outcome

On site. Opening expected in 2027.

Ground floor plan, 1:200

The children’s library: oak shelves with arched reading nooks, timber tables and chairs on a concrete floor, under a sloping timber ceiling with clerestory windows.

The main reading room, with shared timber tables, oak shelving along the walls and a band of high windows looking into the tree canopy.

Section through the reading room, 1:200

The community room set with rows of timber chairs, its full-height glass wall opening onto the park and a white-barked sycamore.

A corner of high windows where the brick wall meets the timber ceiling, framing sycamore branches outside.

The reading room at dusk from the park path, its high windows lit beneath the timber roof.

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