bcWORKSHOP, organizer of the Little Free Libraries project in Dallas, just released a great video of the build day activities last weekend. Check out the Studio Outside library in Mill City and other really cool projects all around Dallas!
Little Free Libraries/Libros Libres is a literacy and community design initiative in Dallas that uses free book exchanges to build community and promote a culture of reading. Part of the Little Free Library movement started by Todd Bol and Rick Brooks, these small neighborhood book shelters operate under the guiding principle of “take a book, leave a book.” All libraries are publicly accessible and books are free. In March-May 2014, up to 20 Little Free Libraries will be built in neighborhoods in the Lincoln and Madison (South Dallas/Fair Park) and Pinkston (West Dallas) high school feeder patterns (up to 10 in each geography). Community members will work with designers and artists, given a $100 budget, to design and build the libraries. Free books will be supplied to stock the libraries, which will all be located in public places chosen by community members. Learn more at http://lfldallas.org/
Video courtesy of bcWORKSHOP
This post is a continuation of our Little Free Library series, see the previous post and our first post that explains the project.
Studio Outsiders converged on the Mill City Neighborhood last weekend to construct our Little Free Library, the design of which has been in process over the last couple months. Mill City is neighborhood located to the southeast of Fair Park in South Dallas, and only about a 10-minute drive from the office!
Alendra, the steward of the Little Free Library and our point of contact, lives next door to the project site, on which she eventually envisions a community garden serving the neighborhood's residents. The Library is a great place to start, though, as sort of a "phase one" entry into the garden. As landscape architects, we were excited to be paired with a steward who already had in mind the integration of the built object and the garden surrounding it.
Our design incorporated a small terraced garden into the little library, sited adjacent to concrete steps left there from a house that used to sit on the lot. The stairs can easily be used as benches for readers of visitors to the garden to sit on, as well as eventually serving as an entry to the community garden. The Little Free Library is made from re-purposed materials, including cut cedar planks and a little red filing cabinet - all graciously donated by the coolest architectural surplus yard in Dallas called Orr-Reed Wrecking Co. The soil and mulch that we used was also donated by our friends at Soil Building Systems.
Check out more photos of the construction process for our Little Free Library below!
Photos by Charlie Pruitt, Amanda Frey, Allison Baker, Brian Halsell, Ellen Calhoun, Mark Thomas, and Peter Graves
