Cool construction

The new library at Sarasota's Ringling College of Art and Design, the Alfred R. Goldstein Library, houses 75,000 items, from books and periodicals to films and video games. It's also a gathering place where students can study and work on three floors.

Lakewood Ranch-based Willis A. Smith Construction built the library, which features a central staircase and trellises outside with large aluminum slats that form a facade over several sides of the building. Zack Holzworth of Willis Smith, assistant project manager on the project, says the construction team had to install steel tubes from inside the building through the block to support the trellis. He says the trellis design element “gives the building some character.”

Inside, each level has an open floor plan. As students travel to higher levels, the library is intended to become quieter to allow for study time.

A mural at the core of the library dubbed “Momentum” was created by Ringling College alum Julie Kanapaux. It spreads across all three floors of the building and symbolizes the “evolution of creativity through innovative technology.”

• Project: Alfred R. Goldstein Library at Ringling College of Art and Design
• Builder: Willis A. Smith Construction
• Architects: Shepley Bulfinch of Boston; Sweet Sparkman Architects of Sarasota
• Location: 1228 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Sarasota
• Start date: May 18, 2015
• Completion date: February 17, 2017
• Value: $15.5 million construction budget
• Size: 46,000 square feet
• Green: Holzworth expects the building to earn a LEED Gold certification, a measure of resource efficiency and sustainability awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. During the project, he says 230.52 tons of construction waste was recycled instead of being sent to a landfill — 59% of the total waste.
• What's next: Willis Smith is renovating the historic 1926 Sarasota High School building, which will become The Sarasota Museum of Art, a division of Ringling College of Art and Design. The museum will focus on contemporary art and host community education programs.