West Branch Library 

Somerville Public Library The West Branch Library is a historic Carnegie Library in bustling Davis Square. The architecture renovation re-positioned the library as a place to experiment, collaborate, and create. We wanted the landscape to follow suit, conceived as a public porch, the front and back yards serve as a series of stages for small and large community events. 

Moveable cafe seating brings the library outdoors, offering visitors space to read, eat and meet.  The back terrace hosts musical performances, puppet shows, weekly story hours, and sing-alongs. The audience perch on the monolithic granite boulders and lay blankets under the canopy of the established trees in the back garden. The fieldstone steppers invite you through a woodland garden of sweet birches with flat-top boulders for a quiet place to read. Our palette is native woodland understory, layering in plenty of incidental play, scrambling and jumping off boulders, and finding spaces to hide and explore in the miniature woodland.

Location: Somerville, MA (2021)

Project Type: Public library

Project completed while at G2 Collaborative (Sara Brunelle- project manager)

Photos: Raj Das and Anton Grassi (via G2 Collaborative) 

Awards: 2022 Boston Society of Landscape Architects Design Honor Award