FJ Baehr Architects has been selected to design the new Mars Area Public Library which is located in Mars, Pennsylvania. The current facility, located in downtown Mars, is a 10,600 square-foot building with 9,000 square feet of usable space. The building was originally built in 1928 to house a machine shop, and was taken over by the library in 1995.
The proposed new $4.5 building with 19,000 square feet of space will implement a contemporary design with regional forms. The building will feature library services on the first floor, with a community space and outdoor patio on the second floor. The new library will potentially be located in the Adams Township Community Park, between the one-room schoolhouse and the township building’s south parking lot.
The library’s board of directors have been working on the new library project for five years through public outreach and analysis studies. Available on the Mars Area Public Library’s Website, www.marsarealibrary.org, are floor plans and exterior views of the new building.
Architects Fritz Baehr, a 30 year resident of Mars, and Angela Catchen designed the new building to provide ample space for the library as well as additional community services which can operate independently from one another. The size, location and lack of parking of the current building prohibits expansion, and there are a myriad of problems that are too cost-prohibitive to repair or replace. “It makes the situation untenable,” Baehr says, and the current building has been designed with these problems in mind.
According to Baehr, the new building will be “contemporary and open,” with views to the park and finished with siding, stone and a pitched roof. There will be an outdoor amphitheater to host performances and events.
Currently, the Mars Area Public Library hosts a number of popular local and community events, and the new facility will allow for not only additional space for these events, but the ability to expand current programs and develop new ones.
