A recent trend in mixed-use developments is to center the project on a distinctive property to provide a sense of character and place, be it a sports stadium or a historic structure. One Texas town is taking a different page from that book.
In the growing Austin, Texas, suburb of Cedar Park, city leaders and their private development partner chose a new library as its central focus.
RedLeaf Properties and the city of Cedar Park are developing the $750 million Bell District that’s intended to become Cedar Park’s town square. The suburb lacks a typical small-town main street with its accompanying strip of shops, banks, schools and churches.
Lake Flato, a San Antonio-based architecture firm, designed the Bell District with a library at its center because it’s the type of amenity that creates long-term value not only for the developer looking to make a profit but also for people who live in the area, said David Lake, the firm’s co-founder.
“The biggest challenge in any city is whether you have the political will to create something that you know will create value for the citizens,” Lake told CoStar News. “It requires that you have developers who strive to be aspirational while also looking at the bottom line and their return on investment.”
Other cities are considering whether to make a library a central point in redevelopment efforts. In March 2023, Maryland's Howard County issued renderings by British architecture firm Heatherwick Studio for a $143 million lakefront library in Columbia. The project has not received final approval as of October, according to local news organization Baltimore Fishbowl. New libraries have also been developed along with residential, retail and other commercial components in Chicago, Milwaukee, New York and San Francisco, according to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a nonprofit group that studies real estate development.
The choice of a library as the focus of the new town square also reflects a new way of thinking about libraries in the digital age, when information is free and readily available to anyone with an online connection. The 47,000-square-foot Cedar Park library opened in November. The library’s former location is expected to be converted into a community center.
Lake Flato designed Cedar Park’s library with the goal of emphasizing community meetings rather than people sitting at a table studying alone. Features include screened reading porches, covered outdoor spaces and an area for children with indoor and outdoor play areas. The library is adjacent to a new 15-acre park.
“There is a fundamental shift in thinking about libraries,” Lake said. “A library provides things society desperately wants, like a safe, quiet place to share knowledge, but also provides a variety of experiences to kids and teens.”
The Cedar Park library's design leverages "the natural features of the site including preserving as many mature trees as possible, orienting the building to capture summer breezes, daylight and views and creating opportunities for outdoor programming,” Lake Flato said in a description on its website.
“The design concept and use of a hybrid steel and mass timber roof structure revolves around the idea of the library as the community’s porch — a welcoming place that celebrates and encourages community, civic engagement, and an appreciation for reading and learning,” the firm said.
Lake Flato was also the design architect, along with the firm Shepley Bulfinch, for the Austin Central Library, winner of an American Institute of Architects award in 2018 for library design.
The Bell District library is designed to be surrounded by shops, cafes and other amenities that might otherwise be found on a small town’s main street. The project is set to include retail, residential, offices and restaurants, with the various segments opening in phases.
"We are committed to creating a gathering place where local culture and commerce can flourish together," Rob Shands, partner at RedLeaf, said in a news release about the Texas Farmers' Market opening a new location at Bell District.
Because most people in Texas rely on cars to get places, Bell District includes plenty of parking, Lake said. But his firm placed the parking lots away from the center of the district, encouraging visitors to walk among the development's various amenities.
“We have kept cars at bay,” Lake said. “You’ve got to walk a couple of blocks to get there from your car.”
For the record
Lake and Ashley Grzywa led the project for Lake Flato. Rob Shands, a partner at RedLeaf, led the project on behalf of his company. Page developed a master plan for RedLeaf. Lionheart Places provided urban design, land planning, landscape architecture and other services. JE Dunn Construction is the general contractor.