The Private Library for 15,000 volumes is a small project sited in the Hancock Park area.  The client is a bibliophile whose beloved, but always growing, collection was exiled in a storage unit due to a lack of space in his residence.  Our charge was to create a large room for the storage and display of the 15,000 volume collection. The client is an admitted eccentric who is well informed about architecture (completing two years in architecture at Cooper before taking up the Law).  He saw the interior of the library as a private space for himself and his books and the exterior court (which the building forms in the rear of the residence) as a public space devoted to the many parties and events he holds at his house.

We facilitated his wishes by siting the addition off the living room and sheathing the entire building in a zinc skin. This skin was important for the success of the project from a number of points of view; it allowed us to have very low roof slopes (5%) which were necessary to maximize the interior height of the room without blocking the existing upstairs windows, it created a “fifth” façade on the very visible roof of the building and it provided maximum protection, against moisture, for the very valuable book collection.  The library has the minimum amount of window area allowed by code and the small windows required are positioned so as to minimize the amount of natural light falling on the collection. 

The skin itself was designed as a single entity which was folded to fit the volume of the room.  Upon this skin the client wished to project video as a fluid background for his garden entertainments and as an outdoor cinema for more intimate gatherings.  To this end, the north façade and its joint pattern, was carefully proportioned to accept widescreen video images, which are projected by a professional grade digital projector positioned inside the existing house.