Columbus Public Library among ‘10 Most Beautiful’ in Georgia

The Columbus Public Library is among the state’s “10 Most Beautiful Public Libraries,” according to the Georgia Public Library Service, which announced the list Thursday.

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GPLS didn’t rank the libraries but listed them in chronological order of the years they opened:

• The Mary Willis Library in Washington (1888)

• The Carnegie Branch Library in Savannah (1914)

• The Washington Memorial Library in Macon (1923)

• The St. Simons Island Public Library (1937)

• The Buckhead Branch Library in Atlanta (1989)

• The Columbus Public Library (2005)

• The Hamilton Mill Library in Dacula (2011)

• The Dog River Public Library in Douglasville (2011)

• The Porter Memorial Library in Covington (2011)

• The Metropolitan Library in Atlanta (2015)

The selection process, GPLS explained in its news release, started with a two-month period of online nominations from the public. A panel of public library and architecture professionals narrowed the 60 nominees to 10 after three rounds of voting.

The judging panel members are: Leslie Sharp, associate vice provost and a teacher of historic preservation in the College of Architecture at the Georgia Tech; Allyson McCarthy, architect and partner with Turco McCarthy Architecture & Design and former chairwoman of the Atlanta Urban Design Commission; Julie Walker, state librarian; Wendy Cornelisen, assistant state librarian for library innovation and collaboration; Jessica Everingham, assistant state librarian for library development and support; Nathan Rall, GPLS director of library planning and construction; and David Baker, GPLS director of communications and strategic partnerships.

The libraries were judged on their overall design, in form and function, as well as their interior and exterior styles and sense of timelessness, Walker said in the news release.

“We also wanted to recognize libraries that are, or were, innovative for their time, as well as those whose design reflects and serves their respective communities,” she said.

Asked for his reaction to the Columbus Public Library being selected, Chattahoochee Valley Libraries director Alan Harkness told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email, “Our library is a great example of one of the many beautiful assets that our town has given itself. Our building was a gift to the community by voters of the 1999 SPLOST (special purpose local option sales tax) and a group of very dedicated volunteers and staff who made it happen. I am personally proud to be temporary steward of that gift. I truly find that I pinch myself that I get to walk into this building daily.”

Harkness added, “We anticipate having a reception to celebrate with all our stakeholders past and present in the coming weeks.”

Before then, GPLS will honor its “10 Most Beautiful Public Libraries” with a ceremony April 10, starting at 2 p.m., in the Mary Willis Library, the state’s first free library and the first in Georgia to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The library’s address is 204 E. Liberty St., Washington, Ga.

“Design knowledge isn’t just for architects; we can all learn from the buildings around us, and every Georgia library is a great place to begin that lesson,” Walker said. “By highlighting the artistry and history of our public libraries, we hope the passports will be a fun way for families to explore and learn. Once people experience the architecture, heritage, scenery and friendly faces that await, I’m confident they will fall under the spell of these 10 community treasures and be impressed by the immense pride and joy that the library staff who work inside them take in showing them to visitors.”

These libraries and seven others not selected for the final 10 will be celebrated with “passports” available at libraries around the state, according to the news release. Patrons can get their “passports” stamped at each of the 17 libraries included in the promotion. The other seven libraries “whose architectural significance or spectacular settings make them equally worthy destinations for travelers,” the news release says, are: Atlanta Central Library, the Eatonton-Putnam County Library, the Lavonia-Carnegie Library, the Royston Branch Library, Savannah’s Bull Street Branch Library, the Senoia Branch Library and the Towns County Public Library by Lake Chatuge in the town of Hiawassee.

Here is the Columbus Public Library’s narrative, which was used for its nomination and will be in the “passports” this summer:

At 100,000 square feet, the Columbus Public Library is the second largest in Georgia. Completed in 2005, the New Classical red-brick-and limestone building was designed by acclaimed architect Robert A.M. Stern. The facility is topped by a central, sixty-foot-diameter “lantern,” which rises to a height of four stories and serves as a visual beacon to the surrounding neighborhoods. Inside, a grand stairway connects the lobby to the second floor collections. Other significant architectural features include the Grand Reading Room (an arched, double-height room reminiscent of great library reading rooms of the past), a dedicated children’s story time space and outdoor garden, and a front lawn and park used regularly for outdoor festivals and movies.

Muscogee County Library Board chairman David Fox, executive vice president for real estate production at fit and affordable housing facilitator NeighborWorks Columbus, said in an email Friday to the Ledger-Enquirer from the Chattahoochee Valley Libraries that the Columbus Public Library’s honor “is so well deserved. Not only do we have a very unique and functional facility, we have the best of staffs, one which is especially 'customer-centric' and well versed in what makes a library valuable for its community and region. Well done, Georgia. You selected a winner, of which the patrons in Columbus were already aware."