ASU Hayden Library: Reinvention of a Mid-Century Icon

The Arizona State University Hayden Library Reinvention, located in the heart of the main campus in Tempe, AZ, opened in Spring 2020. Originally built in 1966 to serve a population of 20,000 students, Hayden Library had grown to become the anchor institution for one of the largest public universities in the country. Its system consists of nine libraries, serving more than 70,000 on-campus students and encompassing over 5 million volumes. 

This extensive renovation reimagines and reinvents Hayden Library for the 21st century. The main drivers for the university were to provide variety of flexible spaces for learning, studying, collaborating, and making; enhance campus connectivity by engaging with the surrounding malls that intersect at a primary campus hub and a newly activated ground floor; and employ a sustainable approach to all aspects of design. The 252,600 GSF interior and exterior renovation transformed a place for books into a place for people, reflecting the diversity, history, sustainable vision, and scholarship of the university and greater Arizona. 

The original 1966 Weaver and Drover design of Hayden Library allowed for access and approach from the adjacent malls. Later additions, over several decades, removed ground-level entry to the tower. The 2020 Reinvention harkens back to the original design by celebrating the details of the past and highlighting them throughout the project. The mid-century modern shell and unique details, such as wood balustrade with stainless steel inlay on the existing terrazzo central stairs, are all maintained. The ground level is opened to allow for an approachable and welcoming experience for users, and custom profiles and angular geometry found throughout are reinterpreted and repeated in a mix of old and new details that support modern codes while maintaining the sophistication of the past era. A new interconnected vertical stair provides the network link from structured learning on the lower level to informal study and discovery of the upper levels. 

Part of a larger system with changing needs, the Hayden Library Reinvention embodies the library’s vision of a hub for inquiry, collaboration, innovation, and encounter by enriching the experience of patrons and supporting a broad range of uses. Traditionally enclosed programs break out and open into each other, blending use and ownership, and creating opportunities for cross-pollination. The design provides for a variety of flexible space types for learning, studying, collaborating, and making. The third level of the tower is dedicated to innovation, bringing together a collection of research centers and interdisciplinary learning labs that take the ASU community beyond book collections and archival materials into other regions of today’s scholarly landscape, in which new platforms for research and data facilitate new means of knowledge creation and dissemination. Collaborative lounges are dispersed throughout the floors to provide more student space and encourage quiet conversation. The fourth level reading room is designed for open reading and collections space. The perimeter is lined with modular shelving with integrated seating and display. 

With no clear entry, the existing tower was disconnected from the adjacent buildings and campus malls. Moreover, the subterranean entrance through the adjacent building addition created wayfinding issues. The new exterior design infills a majority of the surrounding moat on the lower level, creating a ground level plaza to reconnect the tower to campus. The 2020 Reinvention reinforces campus connections at building entries and new canopies mark ground level entries, connecting students from the campus malls to the library. The new entries improve wayfinding and extend campus green spaces and plazas into the heart of the library. The ground level plaza engages the surrounding campus malls, connects library program at ground level to adjacent buildings, and eliminates barriers to entry. Reading Rooms featuring unique, curated collections for active use by students and faculty are arranged along the long west side of the tower, showcasing the reinterpreted library program. 

A design challenge for the Hayden Library Reinvention was how to reimagine the existing library in place to minimize environmental impact while giving Hayden Library the contemporary amenities it requires to support students. Reinventing the library in lieu of tearing it down allows 95% of the most carbon-intensive elements of the existing construction, the structural system and the opaque portions of the building envelope, to remain in place. Material choices throughout the project’s finish palette encourage the use of products that are regionally available with recycled content. Upgraded glazing and HVAC systems bring the best of contemporary high-performance building practices to the project and energy modeling indicates the new library will reduce energy expenses 47% compared to the existing library. Inside the building, water conservation is supported by efficient plumbing fixtures that are anticipated to decrease potable water use by over 37%. Outside the building, native plantings and a high-efficiency irrigation system reduce potable water consumption by 80%. The project is currently tracking LEED Platinum certification. 

Hayden Library’s reuse retains the embodied energy and value of its structure and reveals the character of the building in a new light for a new time. Reinvention allows for a design respectful of context, history, and tradition, while showcasing new and future uses and programs, built around a mix of details that celebrate the past and project the future. By creating welcoming, equitable environments, engaging surrounding malls, and reinforcing physical and visual connections on the site and within the building, the library repositions itself to support students at the heart of campus, reconnecting itself to its place.