The new building, which will be architecturally consistent with the other buildings on the historic front quad of the Middlebury campus, will provide for efficient and flexible space that will serve the College's library needs well into the next century. While the expanded Starr Library is under construction, library operations will be housed in the current science center, which will be renovated this fall for library use following the move of the science faculty and their equipment to Bicentennial Hall. The temporary library facility will be ready for occupancy in May 2000. Construction on the new Starr Library will begin during the summer of 2000, with completion anticipated in June 2002. Plans for the new library accommodate the increasing use of technology to enhance teaching and research in the academic library environment, while permitting sufficient expansion space to house the College's ever-growing collection of printed materials.
Plans also call for increased library seating to accommodate the planned growth in the student body.
Group study areas and meeting rooms will offer the opportunity for interactive and collaborative learning. Charles Gwathmey and Robert Siegel have practiced architecture together for more than three decades. Their award-winning firm has extensive experience on college and university campuses, with projects at Cornell, Harvard, and Princeton, among other institutions. Their Science, Industry, and Business Library in New York City, a unit of the New York Public Library, is considered by many to be the best example of a 21st-century library now in operation. Gwathmey Siegel has also been commissioned to design the new United States Mission to the United Nations, and recently completed the addition to Frank Lloyd Wright's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum-both in New York City.