Silverman Library renovation underway in Heart of the Campus project

Rooms for individual and group study. A traditional “Grand Reading Room” featuring rich oak woodwork and archival images of university life. High-tech classrooms. Suites for producing, editing and viewing multimedia. A café.

These are the focal points of the 21st-century library, currently under construction on the third floor of the Oscar A. Silverman Library in Capen Hall.

The transformation of Silverman Library is a key component of the Heart of the Campus (HOTC) project, the UB 2020 initiative to enhance the student learning experience by creating a “learning landscape” in the center of the academic spine.

In addition to the Silverman renovation, HOTC includes consolidation of services offered by the Office of Accessibility Resources and creation of a “one-stop shop” for student services, both on the ground floor of Capen.

The project aims to create a “heart of the campus” in which classrooms, study spaces, computer labs, library facilities and dining services provide “a continuous environment” that supports the learning process. The idea is to make a new “learning landscape” where students can learn everywhere on campus — not just in lecture halls and labs.

The multi-phased Heart of the Campus project “will really transform the student, faculty and staff experience at UB, starting with the library,” says Kelly Hayes McAlonie, director of the Capital Planning Group.

The renovated Silverman Library will feature many different kinds of learning environments to accommodate the different ways students study and learn, says Karen Senglaup, associate university librarian for administration.

The Grand Reading Room — “bright, but rich, elegant and collegiate” — is designed for individual, silent contemplation and study, while the group study rooms and spaces lend themselves to students doing collaborative work, Senglaup says. The multimedia center will have areas for creating, editing and viewing media. The third floor also will feature two high-tech classrooms, a cybrary with access to computers, and a café and other social meeting spaces.

H. Austin Booth, vice provost for university libraries, notes the 21st-century library serves as a social learning space, as well as a space for individual study and reflection.

“This project will transform the third floor of Silverman Library into a beautiful, inspiring, state-of-the-art place of destination for students, faculty and staff,” Booth says “It will be a place where students come to meet, learn, study, think, reflect and create new knowledge to build the future.

“We are very excited that this new space has been designed to reflect the diverse learning and studying styles of students for today and tomorrow.”

To help students find the appropriate “learning space,” the layout of the library is being organized via a “neighborhood concept,” with each type of learning environment defined by its own finish, furniture and color palette, Hayes McAlonie explains. Students coming into the library then will be able “to head for the kind of space they like to learn in,” adds Senglaup.

Senglaup and Hayes McAlonie note the library stacks have been removed from the third-floor design, and the new space will feel open, with lots of natural light. Visitors will have an uninterrupted view through the space from north to south.

The renovation originally was projected to take place last spring, with the third-floor of the library reopening this fall. But construction issues and asbestos removal set back the design process.

Work should be completed by mid-spring — ultimately a delay of only a few months, Hayes McAlonie says. The decision was made to reopen in fall 2016 because “we just decided that we wanted to get the project right so we would take extra time,” she says.

There was an advantage to the delay, Senglaup notes, in that the project now includes the café, which was not part of the initial plan.

While the Silverman renovation continues, work also is ongoing to consolidate services offered by Accessibility Resources on the ground floor of Capen. The space will include new offices and testing rooms, and the area will receive new carpeting, paint and lighting.

A facelift for the common space adjacent to the undergraduate Admissions Office also is planned. The space — often the first space seen by prospective students and other visitors to campus — will receive new flooring, signage, paint and technology.

The second phase of HOTC is the creation of a “one-stop shop” for student services on the ground floor of Capen. The aim is to consolidate those services students most frequently use — but now are scattered all across the campus — into one central space to ensure easy access.

Offices housed in this area would include the Student Response Center, Student Accounts, Registrar, Campus Living, Campus Dining & Shops, Parking and Transportation, Student Life, Conferences and Events, Student Wellness and New Student Programs.

Construction is expected to begin in fall 2016.

The architects on the project are Architectural Resources and Perry Dean Rogers.

Updates can be found on the Heart of the Campus website.