Chartreuse? Fuschia? What were they thinking?
While downtown Fargo is temporarily without a library until April 25 when the New Main Library opens, we thought we would give some glimpses into what will be coming in the new library. For those driving by on 1st Avenue North, you can already see many things happening inside the library.
As part of those glimpses inside, you may see some very bright colors. There are bright yellow-greens, orange, magenta, various shades of blue, and summery golds. For some folks, these colors may be, well, a bit interesting.
The colors within the new library have their roots in the public meetings held in 2005 and 2006. When the architects from Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle asked those attending the public forums what they wanted in a new library, there were several comments along the lines of “Fargo is white and grey six months of the year; we don’t want a white and grey library anymore.”
The architects listened. At the next meeting, they came back with a concept board. This board was a collage of photographs taken in North Dakota. As they presented it, Jeff Scherer and Jack Poling said, “look around you; there are many colors here in your region.” And yes, there are. There is the intense yellow-green of the first shoots of corn in the fields. There is the bright reddish pink of a prairie sunset. There is the glowing orange of sunrise on the plains. Yes, there are somber colors of brown and grey as fields lie dormant for the winter. But to balance that there are the brilliant blue skies, gold sunflowers, and purple canola fields in bloom.
The concept board with the photographs and paint colors pulled from the photos is on display at our Carlson Branch, along with the floor plans for the New Main Library. As the plans have gone through revisions and slight adjustments, the concept board and the colors have stayed constant.
So even during this week when we returned to a white world outside, as we work inside the New Main we are surrounded by the colors of our landscape.