Cape Cod Home Autumn 2018 Cover

Community Bound: West Falmouth Library

Cape Cod Home  /  Autumn 2018 / ,

Writer: Haley Cote / Photographer: Dan Cutrona 

Community Bound: West Falmouth Library

Cape Cod Home Autumn 2018 Cover

Cape Cod Home  /  Autumn 2018 / ,

Writer: Haley Cote / Photographer: Dan Cutrona 

West Falmouth Library

West Falmouth Library

An existing addition on the building from 1972—which was renovated to include an expanded children’s area on the main level, complete with windows original to the 1896 building—proved to be beneficial to the design team. “Our addition is connected to the ’70s wing, so we weren’t making a hard connection between the new work and the original library,” says Rick Fenuccio, president of BLFR. “That helped visually pull the new addition away a bit from the original building so that it didn’t start to overwhelm it.”

But constructing the new addition did present a few uphill battles, so to speak. “The big challenge, because we were basically building into a fairly steep hill, in order to come out the back corner of the building and connect to the parking lot, it required really excavating into the hill and creating a significant size retaining wall into the hill,” says Fenuccio. “We had to deal with the drainage and keeping water from wanting to cascade down the hill and into the building.” There was also the limited footprint to contend with. “Because of where the building is,” Fenuccio explains, “we had to fit the addition, a new septic system and infrastructure, improve pathways and landscaping—all of this within a relatively small envelope from the right side of the building toward the parking area.”

“Overall the project went seamlessly,” notes Chris Conway, senior vice president of operations for Dellbrook | JKS. “We were able to incorporate the new design into the existing structure quite well, so much so that those driving by would have a difficult time distinguishing between the two.”

Careful consideration and great detail went into tying the original library building and the new addition together. Maria Raber, project manager for BLFR, explains that the addition is designed to complement the original historic structure. The facing around the lower level of the addition is a granite veneer—similar to the Falmouth pink granite used as part of JFK’s gravesite—with the same tone as the original building’s rubble stone foundation. The same clapboard siding is used on both exteriors, painted to match the original color of the library, a Victorian shade of purple-gray. Historic paint testing needed to be done to determine this color, as the library had been repainted differently in the years since 1896.

Inside the original part of the library—consisting of the connected community room and main reading room, framed by distinct wood trim and wainscoting—Raber says the space simply “needed some love.” All cracked plaster was repaired, and the original maple floors were refinished. Existing diamond-pattern windows and eyebrow dormers were restored, along with their sashes. The historic medallions in the ceiling were also restored and painted in their original bronze color. The entire interior was repainted to match the original warm hues—the ceiling in ochre and the walls in a Victorian-era green.

Haley Cote

Haley Cote is the assistant editor for Cape Cod Life Publications. A lifelong Cape Cod resident, Haley is an alumna of Barnstable High School and Cape Cod Community College. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Suffolk University. When she’s not writing, this self-described “pop culture junkie” also loves discovering new music and catching up on the “Real Housewives.”