Library Transformation

The college has entered the design phase with MSR Design, which is expected to take one year. Construction is scheduled to begin as early as 2025, pending fundraising success, and is projected to take two years.

The task force developed guiding principles for the renewed library, and additional input was gathered from a broad group of campus stakeholders:

• Welcome: the services, programming, collections, technology, building and site will honor the dignity of all individuals and promote a just and equitable experience for all. 
• Connect: the library will be a dynamic community hub that enhances intellectual life and fosters collegiality through a variety of spaces for gathering and interacting.
• Cultivate: the building and its central location will cultivate curiosity, discovery and creativity through spaces for making and sharing, teaching and learning, reading, inquiry and sense making.
• Sustain: the design will embody excellent stewardship of resources by being right-sized to the budget, efficient for staff to use and environmentally sound.
• Adapt: the building will respond gracefully to the needs of diverse users and to evolutions in technology, scholarship, teaching, learning and working. 
• Inspire: the building and site will inspire creativity and experimentation, diverse thinking and exchange of ideas and a sense of belonging through the presence of light, artwork, and inviting workspaces and interactive areas.

The major themes are as follows:

• Intellectual Focus: scholarly pursuits with unfettered access to resources and support to empower learners to reach their highest aspirations
• Scholarly Collaboration: collaborative learning and creative exploration fostering collegiality, intellectual inspiration and sense of purpose
• Inspirational Sharing: scholarship and research at Davidson College showcased to inspire the exchange of ideas and build public good
• Object-based Inquiry: critical engagement with unique collections, artifacts, tools, and technologies

The college will construct a permanent, temperature-controlled library annex on campus that will house and make accessible the library’s collection during the renovation. After construction is complete, approximately half of the books will be in the library annex, available same-day, while the more frequently sought after materials will be readily accessible in the transformed library. The library will continue to incorporate the library collection into effective curricular and co-curricular experiences for our students. Additionally, the library will honor and showcase the work of our alums, colleagues and community through future exhibits and programming.

The college team is preparing for the interruption that will undoubtedly be caused by construction of this central space. Convenient access to library staff, study spaces, and library resources will be prioritized throughout the construction period. The college will keep students, faculty, staff and families apprised of additional updates as they are announced.

Building on visioning work from a library-focused task force that met for more than a year, a group of students, faculty, library staff and other campus stakeholders are working closely with MSR Design on the project. Based on a robust community and stakeholder engagement process, the project incorporates diversity in perspectives provided by students, faculty, staff, and community voices.

In the spring of 2021, after an extensive research process, Davidson College invited a select group of national firms with deep library design expertise to interview for the opportunity to conduct the feasibility study. MSR Design, an award-winning firm based in Minneapolis, was selected to lead that effort. Having worked on more than 16 million square feet of library space across the country, MSR Design is at the forefront of library design. The firm has won 261 international, national and regional design awards, including 81 awards for the team’s library work. 

Even at this early phase of the process, the design team is identifying sustainable strategies toward a low-carbon, healthy, resilient environment. Strategies include improved daylight; responsible water use; highly efficient systems; renewable resources such as geothermal and photovoltaic panels; designing to foster human well-being; and healthy, sustainably-sourced materials.

We expect the project to cost approximately $100 million. The transformed library will be the largest capital project in Davidson’s history. This central academic resource is envisioned to be nearly 120,000 square feet plus the annex location. It is a fundamental resource for the educational mission of the college, from teaching and learning to original research. A new rooftop level will house event and programming space.