The Alpine Library

The County of San Diego opened its first zero net energy building, the Alpine Library in Alpine, Calif. The new, $10.2 million, state-of-the-art facility combines sustainable design and technological innovation and is pursuing both LEED Gold certification and Living Building Challenge’s Net Zero Energy Building Certification from the International Living Future Institute.

The 12,700-square-foot library is four times the size of the original facility, and offers a variety of services, including daily story time, programs for all ages, and free access to a network of 42 million books, DVD movies and music CDs. The library also includes automated book check-out and returns, a MakerBot 3-D printer, study rooms, a resource room for programs and exhibits, an approximately 700-square-foot Friends of the Library bookstore, early learning Discover Zone provided in part by First 5 of San Diego, and special areas for tweens and teens.

The new library is located adjacent to the Alpine Community Center, which sold a portion of its property, along with parking lots, to the county. Construction on the design-build project began in late-2009 and it opened on May 21, 2016, with more than 2,215 visitors on the first day. C.W. Driver, San Diego, was the general contractor, Ferguson Pape Baldwin Architects, San Diego, was the executive architect and Manuel Oncina Architects Inc., La Jolla, Calif., was the design architect.

Manuel Oncina, president, architect and principal designer at Manuel Oncina Architects, says the design goal was to attain the rigorous programmatic needs, fit the library into a tight site while respecting the existing oaks, respond to neighbors graciously, express an exciting, yet contextual architecture, and meet the client’s goals for excellent sustainable principles.

Read more about this project: Metal Architecture