Sahuarita Regional Library

The new Sahuarita Regional Library provides an improved space for visitors, administration, and students with an expanded collection, access to cutting-edge learning services and technology, and a unique customer-centric experience for its users.

The new 17,000 sf library includes collection areas for children, teens, and adults, as well as several study/meeting rooms, a maker space, gaming center, and a business development space that can be used for collaborating and developing job skills. A large multi-purpose room is designed to open up to an outdoor patio tempered with building relief air, where special presentations and performances can be hosted for the public.

As positive views are lacking from the site, the facility focuses instead on the adjacent desert landscape. A low ribbon window provides views to earth berms and bioswales planted with native vegetation irrigated with rainwater collected from the roof and hardscapes. The berm also helps mitigate noise from the adjacent major arterial street. Steel “shard” structures, an abstraction of the area’s mining activities, rise from the south elevation to define outdoor reading patios and allow diffused natural light to penetrate the interior space. Large overhead fans help temper these patios for comfort during the summer months.

Materials such as exposed steel, concrete and masonry were selected for their durability and need for minimal maintenance in this high-use public facility.