Charlestown Branch Library

Good

Charlestown Branch Library

Credit

Ed Johnston

Site overview

The commission of this branch library brought Catalano to one of the oldest neighborhoods in Boston, the center of Charlestown.  Charlestown in the 1950s was very close, working-class community but the population was in a decline with families moving out the area for more favorable opportunities elsewhere.  The residents of the area were becoming frustrated that no urban renewal programs were occurring in the area with the exception of demolition.  Advocacy groups were saying “Charlestown will be a ghost-town in less than ten years.”  A new library branch was approved in 1966, and in August of 1967 the land sale was finalized, building plans were submitted, and construction began shortly after.  Along with a new library, improvements to  infrastructure, the removal and reconstruction of housing, a community college, and a new shopping enter would be built.

 

Completion

1970

Original Brief

Commission Brief - After Catalano completed the Julliard School in New York in 1969 with Pietro Belluschi, he became one in a group of architects commissioned by the Boston Public Library to design a branch library around the city.

 

Design Brief - The Charlestown Elevated, a train line, was running along the south side of the building in the 1960s.  It was scheduled to be removed, as a part of the urban renewal plan, however would not be done so until 1975.  With the removal scheduled, Catalano and associate Frederick Taylor designed the south side of the building to be a more public and open to the street.  Facing Main Street, the building is defined by an U-shaped volume of concrete.

Current Use

Library

Current Condition

Good

General Description

A main feature of the building is the U-shaped concrete volume, which is precast concrete that is supported by poured-in-place concrete walls, forming a channel across the entire building.  Here glass fills the span that opens up the 8,900 square foot library to the outside.  The cantilevered canopy with the façade’s profile at a smaller scale is reversed to catch rain.

 

The large expanses of glass allow light to penetrate deep into the defined spaces of the building.  The heavy concrete appears to float above the glass panels then meet at four feet wide tapered connection points along the exterior of the building.  These mirrored below, show the aggregate of the concrete which symbolizes the load of the building returning to the earth.

There is a weightlessness to the building with the spacing of tapered pieces located towards the center of the building.  The large expanse of glass located on the southwest of the building, lets people passing by see what is happening on the interior, inviting them into the building.

References

Pasnik, Mark, et al. Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston. The Monacelli Press, 2015.