FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Marlon Blackwell, a professor in the School of Architecture, devoted seven years to the transformation of a 100-year-old hardware store into the Gentry Library. Recently the hard work has paid off: His sleek hybrid of contemporary design and historic artifact has won a 2009 National Library Design Award from the American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association/Library Administration and Management Association. One of eight winners selected from more than 100 entrants, the Gentry Library is the first Arkansas library to win this award. The project also was featured in the October 2008 issue of Architectural Record devoted to “design with conscience.”

Marlon Blackwell is pleased about the national award and coverage, but he’s most proud of the library’s new role as a linchpin for downtown Gentry.

“The real reward is seeing how much the library is used, and the contribution good architecture can make to a community,” Blackwell said. The numbers back him up: Gentry Library memberships have doubled since the new facility opened, and today 1,900 plus citizens, almost 80 percent of the town’s population, have library cards to check out books. 

Structural columns double as lighting and book storage. The buggy recalls the building’s origins; buggies were once sold on the top floor of the hardware store.

“The library is well used, and the award is well deserved,” said Jim Furgason, chair of the library board. “People walk into the library, stop, look around and say ‘Wow.’ That expresses our thoughts perfectly about what Marlon has done.”

Wes Hogue, mayor of Gentry, said: “The new library really energized the downtown district. Now we have parking issues, which is a nice problem to have – I’ll take that over a vacant downtown any day.”

The library is the first civic project completed by Blackwell’s firm and came with its fair share of headaches, including structural issues and moisture damage in the existing building.

“The biggest challenge was to maintain our vision and keep within the construction budget, which was incredibly modest,” Blackwell said. “Fortunately the mayor, the library board and the city council helped us stay the course.”

It took a millage and rebidding the project four times to build the library at $108 per square foot, an extremely lean budget for a public project (the library facilities for Fayetteville and Rogers, for example, ran well over $200 per square foot).

As a return on this investment, the people of Gentry now enjoy a nearly 12,000-square-foot facility where past and present coexist seamlessly, from the lovingly restored pressed tin ceilings to the refinished heartwood pine floors and modern glazing systems. In addition to housing the requisite books and computers, the library showcases historic photographs, vintage clothing and other artifacts from Gentry’s past. A community room, plaza and pocket park set the stage for lectures, book fairs and other civic events.

The awards jury, which included architects and librarians, praised the project as “unabashedly modern yet very respectful of the qualities of the existing building” and noted that the Gentry Library “raises the level of expectations for all small towns. ... The town is to be complimented for its commitment to respecting its heritage while providing a new center of community pride.”

In mid-July Blackwell and representatives from the city of Gentry will travel to the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago to accept the award. The project will be part of an exhibition of outstanding library designs, as well. For more information on the 2009 AIA/ALA Library Building Awards visit the AIA Web site.