Springville Library

The following is a comment I made on the Springville City blog concerning their proposed library. I was intrigued (a little fed up) with the comments left and felt compelled to ramble a little about the current situation. Click here for the full feed and others comments. Oh by the way, I am still awaiting approval of my comment, so there is a possibility that I will get censored.

A few points to make...

Springville deserves more, a lot more! It is clear that the citizens of Springville feel slighted by the development of the new City Library. The big question however is, "Does Springville need a resurrected, turn of the century, architypical and referential library? - No! Most certainly not! While most on this blog state that the proposed building will be dated in just a few years, I would propose that it is already dated. Although certain technologies that will be apart of the new library will be innovative (or at least current), the design and style is not even that. The "Architects" for the building are not/were not traditionally (turn-of-the-century) trained. How can the City of Springville and its citizens expect a traditional building when such a thing cannot be replicated? - another time, another place. Well at least not within a budget. The City and it's citizens would have been better served by the original proposal.

Springville is the Art City, yet the only architecture that seems acceptable is something along the lines of a quasi-traditional building, mixed with some utah vernacular and add a splash of historic revival. I don't think this is the answer. And the claims that the proposed building is "Modern" are mistakenly inaccurate. Take a lesson on modernism and return later with a more educated, more informed mind. The proposed building is not modern. It is not contemporary. What this building is, is in an ever-growing class of buildings that plague our cities, our streetscapes and our lives. A mediocre building trying to be more than its below average self. Springville would be much better served by a contemporary library that speaks to the traditions of now and the hopes of tomorrow. We, as Springville citizens, would find it quite ok if our library contrasted the rest of the town. That the building actually stood for something would be, well something. I would argue that a contemporary building actually makes us more aware of the rich traditions of our fathers. By contrasting the vernacular we actually compliment instead of compete.

When defining architecture please don't mistake new with good, trendy with good, or even historic with good. Great architecture stands alone, it makes us stand back and take stock of our lives, it enlivens us. Our problem, the problem of our cities (and Springville is no exception), is that we are not surrounded by places and spaces that move us, that inspire us. Aren't these the things that a library should do? Books transport us to far off lands, empower us with knowledge, and bring us hope in a world so desperate for attention. Can't a building do the same?

I join the countless number of Springville citizens in my disapproval of the proposed, and soon to be, Springville Library. We could have had more, we should have had more.

'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.' - George Santayana

Jake Gines