Kudos for the Chatham County Library

Kudos to everyone associated with the creation of the beautiful new Chatham County Library. It will be doubtless be a source of community pride for many years to come. Kudos to the vision of the Chatham County Commissioners and Staff, Friends of the Library and Cherry Huffman Architects as well as the countless other contributors I’m invariably leaving out. It’s great to see public investment in quality architecture and design.

This building will last a very long time and continue to reflect the attitudes and values of the community, potentially for generations. An airplane hanger type building would have been a lot cheaper in the short run, but a beautiful and well thought out LEED Gold building such as this will prove to be a much better long term investment--in the obvious way, such as lower life-cycle costs such as heating and cooling, useful lifespan, etc. But more importantly, a beautiful building has inherent value, inspiring its inhabitants and visitors to be better and more sociable people.

Elderly citizens will visit from the Council of Aging building nearby, children will gather for story time, professionals will run in on their lunch hours to drop off books, retirees may linger to read periodicals, CCCC students will come in for research or to go online. This will truly be a community gathering place we can all be very proud of and enjoy.

Library exterior the night of its opening, the event tent is still visible. The landscaping is on the way; it should make the campus more cohesive and will include a much needed central courtyard, as I recall.

Here's the library interior the afternoon of the ribbon cutting. Natural lighting bathes the space.