Downtown Dover’s new library

A significant addition to Dover’s revitalized downtown historical district and first major public building demonstrating sustainable design, the library aims to be a regional destination, providing more hands-on educational resources for the city and encouraging community engagement in both civic and sustainable design.

The city’s priorities for the new library include energy and water conservation, green building education, and healthy interior environments. To reach these goals, Atelier Ten focused the team on integrated daylighting and lighting, an optimized envelope, and innovative water reduction strategies to design a library where energy cost is 36% less and total potable water use is 62% less than a code-compliant building.