INDIAN CREEK LIBRARY

This ~48,000 sq/ft vacant grocery store was adapted to facilitate a neighborhood library and community center in suburban Kansas City. Many diverse services are accommodated, including public meeting rooms, maker spaces, coffee shop, and children’s play area in addition to book access. Focus on wayfinding through passive lighting elements is important to the visitor experience.  

The west-facing facade is primarily glass, which required solar shading. The architect developed a sculptural composition of “leaf” reflectors that shaded portions of the glass while also capturing sunlight, resulting in a spectacular luminous show throughout the day, especially during sunsets. Miniature LED luminaires are integrated with select reflectors to further animate the facade during dark hours.  The “leaf” reflector is turned horizontal and slides into the interior to continue the fluttering light play from the exterior and to offer some visual shielding to the otherwise unfinished exposed structure.  

Wayfinding focus is achieved by wall-washing the south wood wall  that continuously wraps the interior. Large luminous “beacons” suspend over key destination areas to draw the visitors focus. Free-standing book stacks have integrated lighting to aid legibility of book spines and to call attention to this primary display area.    

A custom small scale pendant was designed to offer general downlighting. Linear fixtures are not used to limit distraction from the leaf reflectors. The fixture body is only 1.65” diameter and engineered as a contiguous heat-sink to maximize lumen output while minimizing physical scale. The assembly is comprised of limited component parts to maximize economy, yielding a well-engineered and aesthetically modest fixture with a distributor net unit price of ~$75 (less driver). Economy is further maximized by using low voltage plug connectors at remote drivers to minimize labor, and each remote driver enclosure houses up to 10 drivers requiring only one conduit connection to land building wire.  

Lighting Designer: Derek Porter Studio
Architect: Gould Evans
MEP Engineeer: Smith and Boucher
Custom Product Manufacturer: Excellerated Design
Photographer: Michael Robinson

Awards
IESNA Merit Award, 2021

Details
New construction
48,000 square feet
Olathe, KS