Middlebury College library, Middlebury, Vt.

   For the New York-based Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects LLC, the client and the setting – along with well-placed stone – helped provide the answer.
   With its Vermont location and commitment to using local materials, there’s little doubt that natural stone would play a large role both inside and outside the Middlebury College library, which was completed in time for the start of the 2004-2005 school year.
   A new building, however, wasn’t even on the radar when campus officials began looking at library needs a decade ago.
   At that time, Barbara Doyle-Wilch, dean of library and information services for the Middlebury, Vt.-based school, says the emphasis was on what could be done to bring the existing library into a configuration to meet existing and future needs.
   “The original library started out at the turn of the 20th century as a very charming structure,” she says. “It had been added on to through the decades. Some of the additions from the 1960s and ‘70s were falling apart. And, there were 17 different levels, so it wasn’t handicapped-accessible.”
   After interviewing several architectural firms, the school’s design committee invited Gwathmey Siegel and another firm to compete for the job of updating the old library with a major addition. However, by the time Gwathmey Siegel won that competition in early 1999, some changes in thinking about the library were already taking place.
   Joe Ruocco, the Gwathmey associate partner in charge of the project, says that once the addition came under discussion, college officials began to weigh whether it best met the needs of the school’s master plan.
   “At that point, we refocused our efforts on whether the existing library was even the best place for a library,” he says. “We re-reviewed the master plan and began looking at alternate site options.”
   Over time, the site of Middlebury’s old science building came to the top of the list. The sciences had moved into a new building on the campus, and the old one was slated for renovation into a residential commons.
   “There were many factors that made planning a new library in a new location more rational,” says Ruocco. “The old science building had been put up in the ‘60s and wasn’t well thought about in terms of impact. This became a whole new way to recast the front quad, respect the existing historical buildings, and create a new campus center.”
   However, in designing a new building, the architectural team also faced several constraints, starting with Middlebury’s strong commitment to sustainability. The college provides all contractors with construction and demolition recycling guidelines, and an estimated 98 percent of the old science building was recycled during demolition.
   Then, there are the neighboring buildings. The National Park Service named the college’s Old Stone Row to the National Register of Historic Places. The Row’s three buildings, which were erected of local limestone by the Middlebury community between 1815 and 1861 and represent the original campus, are still used today.
   However, their presence helped the architects find an exterior solution that met the school’s sustainability requirement, while giving the new library some context.
   “A lot of the historical buildings have varying uses of limestone, granite, marble and some slate,” says Ruocco. “There’s some variety, but essentially the context of campus is a gray stone palette with white accents; we used that as a springboard.”
   The project’s budget offered still another concern. Although the library is a large project by both Middlebury and Vermont standards – 143,000 ft² in three floors – funds were tight, and Ruocco says the Gwathmey Siegel team recognized the need to economize.
   The first part of the solution presented itself in Adair Gray limestone. The stone, imported from nearby Ontario, first appeared in Middlebury’s Bicentennial Hall project.
   “We decided that of the stones used on campus, this would offer economy and work best with how we wanted to articulate the building,” Ruocco says. “Given the curved form we had for the main body of the building, the limestone, in an ashlar pattern, proved to be economical because it was installed as a self-supporting bearing wall. It had no structural support other than itself.”
   While specifying the Adair Gray as the building’s primary exterior color, the architects looked to accent the building’s tower and south-facing wall – which includes individual study carrels – with a Vermont marble called Imperial Danby.
   “We feel it has a richness and quality to it that’s unique,” says Ruocco.
   While Ruocco says the Middlebury facilities planning people are quite knowledgeable of Vermont products and tradespeople, they turned to the Boston firm of Lee Kennedy Co. Inc. to provide preconstruction management and serve as general contractor for the library project.
   “They came in during the design-development process and helped with the construction document phase of our work,” says Ruocco. “They helped with developing the budgets and worked with us to mold the project into the parameters of the dollars to get what everyone wanted. They were very helpful in that regard.”
   Lee Kennedy, in turn, called upon Trowel Trades Supply Inc., of Colchester, Vt., to facilitate the exterior-stone portion of the project. 
   “Because of our experience in the business, we are in a good position to contract with the mason or general contractor to provide a comprehensive stone package-management service,” says the company’s general manager, Roger Quirion. “This includes full-scope shop drawings showing all the various stone components on one set of documents.
   “This project included hung marble panels, rocked limestone ashlar and cast-stone accents, as well as the anchoring details for each condition. We then coordinate fabrication and delivery of these components, as well as the stainless-steel anchoring and accessories necessary to complete the installation.”
   Simply finding enough marble for the project started out as a challenge for the architects and Quirion. While Imperial Danby is quarried near Danby, Vt., R.E.D. Graniti S.p.A. of Massa, Italy, owns the quarry; most of the blocks are shipped to its plant in Carrara, Italy.
   “The quarry pulls blocks out relatively slowly, and it was a bit late before we got the order, so it would have been tough to have them quarry the blocks and do the fabrication here,” Quirion explains. “The material (already) in Italy just needed to be slabbed and sent back over here, and that’s what we did, both for economy and so we could have it in a timely manner.”
   Once the blocks were cut into 1 1/4”slabs, they were shipped to Granite Importers Inc. of Barre, Vt., which fabricated the pieces ultimately installed on the building.
   Mary Tousignant, project manager for Granite Importers, says for this project she traveled to Italy with Granite Importers chairman Jake Colgan for an initial inspection of the stone. Maintaining color consistency throughout the process was one of the company’s main jobs.
   “(It) was a challenge, as every block displayed a variety of colors that naturally occur within the Imperial Danby layer,” Tousignant says. “Every sawyer had to be aware of the limits of color allowable on the project, and make a judgment call before cutting each piece of stone. A thorough blending and final inspection was required as the panels were boxed for shipment to the site.”
   Along with the typical panels, Granite Importers manufactured radial-arm panels, sills, lintels and copingstones for the project. The company also drilled all the anchor slots for the panels.
   Although Granite Importers did the anchor slots on the finished pieces, Trowel Trades arranged for the engineer who specified the anchoring system for the marble; that company also provided the anchors.
   “We work with people who are specialized in that type of work,” Quirion says. “The engineer is in Louisiana, but he specializes in anchoring stone facades like this. We’re a liaison between the contractor and the engineer, getting them plans, relaying installation techniques to the contractor, and detailing the pieces. We did all the shop drawings and provided the tickets that showed what the anchors looked like, what size and what gauge each was.”
   JB Stone of St. Albans, Vt., handled the installation. Quirion says the marble was mounted on CMU backup with expandable anchor bolts.
   “There’s no mortar in the façade; they’re all caulked joints,” he notes. “The majority of the pieces were the same size, but there was a lot of custom fitting around the starter courses and the soffit pieces. Out of about 9,000 different pieces of stone, there were about 400 different profiles.”
   By comparison, Quirion says obtaining the Adair Gray limestone from Arriscraft International of Cambridge, Ontario, was a fairly easy process, although it required some calculations in terms of what sizes of stone to order and how the pattern would work.
   “The unit size was workable and economical,” says Gwathmey’s Ruocco. “There was no fabrication requirement. The stone was ordered and the masons installed it in a crafty way.”
   The architectural team also carried natural stone in to the interior of the structure. Ruocco says the use of slate was dictated by its palette, its being a local stone, and its economical price.
   “It worked perfectly within our large atrium space,” he says. “It’s all a green, non-fading slate, done at the size that was most-efficient – 3/8” thick 18” X 18” tiles. Special pieces were used for the stair treads and landings on the monumental staircase, and those were fabricated from slab. There are also a few pieces of cabinetry that have slate trim and detail attached to them.”
   Barre Tile Co., also of Barre, Vt., handled the interior slate installation. Tom Burke, the project manager, says his company successfully bid the job, which included supplying the stone, then turned that part of the job over to one of Barre Tile’s regular suppliers, Sheldon Slate Products Company Inc., of Middle Granville, N.Y.
   Although a New York-based company, Sheldon Slate’s office manager, Beverly Tatko, says the natural cleft-face Vermont Green slate came from a Sheldon quarry in Poultney, Vt. The flooring order totaled 4,800 ft².
   “It’s a substantial amount of flooring, and it’s bigger and thicker tiles than we make each day, although it’s quite normal for commercial jobs like this one,” says Tatko. “There were a number of steps and risers, and they were all custom-made.”
   Barre Tile’s Burke says the tiles were thinset with a latex-and-thinset mixture over a 2” mud bed, then impregnated with a 5-11 impregnator.
   “They had a recessed slab, and we had to bring the mud up so we could leave the tile butt flush with the carpet,” he explains.
   While the tiles installed nicely, Burke says the stairs presented more of a challenge because of heights and gaps.
   “The stone on the stairs was on a steel pan, and we had to configure a way to bond the stone and mud to the pan,” he explains. “We made a template and, using that, put our mud down. Then we epoxied our slate risers to the steel pan with inch spacers, and filled what would have been an air gap with mud. We then left a 1” thickness above the steel pan, and screed it across to give us our bed for the stair treads.”
   Burke adds that the slate portion of the job – his company also did some of the ceramic work in the bathrooms – took approximately a month’s time using a crew of three-to-six installers.
   Although not part of the building project, the Philadelphia-based Andropogon Associates Ltd. designed the landscape for the library’s main entrance that also includes the use of natural stone: a Panton limestone from a small quarry in the vicinity of nearby Lake Champlain.
   José Almiñana, the project designer for Andropogon, says his company was brought in to address the transformation of the Front Quadrangle that included the redesign of the paths on the campus to make the new library more accessible.
   “Part of the challenge of the project was to provide universal access to the building from existing parking areas and buildings on the Front Quadrangle,” he says. “Working in collaboration with Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, we needed to connect to the campus fabric while keeping in mind the topography, view sheds and the building itself.”
   The building’s entry plaza consists of a series of steps and ramps, utilizing solid blocks of the locally quarried limestone meant to evoke the exposed stone found around the campus.
   Originally, Almiñana hoped to use stone excavated from the library site, but he realized that was impractical. Instead, the limestone used for the steps and seating, also fabricated by Granite Importers, was left as natural as possible.
   “We tried to keep as much of the existing natural finish as we could,” he says. “Much of the stone was already weathered and cleft, sitting at the end of the quarry. Where we had to make cuts for steps and landings, we flame-dressed the exposed surfaces.”
   Granite Importers’ Colgan was instrumental in making this part of the project work by hand-selecting the limestone, then assisting in fitting the blocks together to achieve Almiñana’s desired look.
   The library’s reading garden features a sculpture in natural stone by artist Michael Singer. Adjacent to the garden is a planted basin for stormwater collection also made from the Panton limestone and dry-laid. When it overflows, it drains into a series of vegetated swales lined with locally gathered cobblestones and planted with native plants.
   “All that was done within the resources and skills available in the area, which is a hallmark of Middlebury College,” Almiñana concludes. “This building is no different, and with the landscape we’ve tried to make it even more so.”
   Despite some problems that delayed completion of the project by approximately four months, all those involved say they’re thrilled by the finished product.
   “It was a difficult process at times,” says Trowel Trades’ Quirion. “Still, the end result is a beautiful building that we’re proud to have been involved with.”
   “We’re very, very proud of it,” says Gwathmey Siegel’s Ruocco. “It’s a marvelous building and it’s turned out to work for them in the ways they hoped, and beyond.”
   Dean Doyle-Wilch says her biggest wish was for a library that went beyond the concept of being a book warehouse. Not only does the new facility give the school plenty of room to expand its collections in years to come, but it’s become an intellectual center of activity for both students and faculty.
   “I’ve talked with only one person who’s been unhappy with it,” she says. “One member of the econ faculty said, ‘I think it’s a bit too modern,’ but she’s been here just about every day.”
   Doyle-Wilch admits that she, too, was a bit concerned that with its size and modern design the library might stick out, but that isn’t the case.
   “It’s just nestling right into the hill,” she concludes. “Because of the stonework it matches the adjacent buildings. They were very careful to match the adjacent buildings and even though it’s modern, it feels like it belongs.”

Client: Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt.
Architect: Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects LLC, New York
Contractor: Lee Kennedy Co. Inc., Boston
Exterior Stone Facilitator: Trowel Trades Supply Inc., Colchester, Vt.
Exterior Stone Fabricator: Granite Importers, Barre, Vt.
Limestone Supplier/Fabricator: Arriscraft International, Cambridge, Ontario
Exterior Stone Installer: JB Stone, St. Albans, Vt.
Interior Stone Supplier/Fabricator: Sheldon Slate Products Company Inc., Middle Granville, N.Y.
Interior Stone Installer: Barre Tile Inc., Barre, Vt.
Landscape Architect: Andropogon Associates Ltd., Philadelphia

This article first appeared in the March 2005 print edition of Stone Business. ©2005 Western Business Media Inc.