
Architectural designer Celia Imrey of Imrey Studio LLC has designed the new $11 million, Silver LEED Edgartown Public Library on Martha’s Vineyard, which is having its grand opening on June 25, 2016. The library features signature “lighthouse” clerestories and soaring interior spaces that bring daylight deep into the reading areas. “I wanted the architecture to uplift while providing an anchor of learning and research at the same time,” says Imrey, who was originally hired by the Town of Edgartown in 2011 to design the project on a different site. “Learning is for everyone, and the community here is inclusive. The building’s design is conceived to provide transparency, both literally and figuratively.”
In Edgartown where widow’s walks and lighthouses abound, Imrey took cues from the local architecture to inform the overall massing and design. To achieve simultaneous “uplift” and “anchor,” the building combines a solid brick perimeter with tall windows and wrap-around clerestories. The 15,000 sq. ft. library is divided into three main programmatic volumes: Adult Wing, Children’s Wing and Gallery/Community Room and exterior reading areas that fit together into a kind of campus. The three clerestories are gently up-lit at night like giant lanterns. Inside, the volumes express their distinct program with unique lighting, materials and furnishings. The design also features an “eave-less” gutter that eliminated the heavy overhangs that are so common in typical building methods, a stainless steel and walnut stair, and oversized custom light fixtures on the adult reading level. The fixtures, designed by Imrey and fabricated in Boston, are intended to evoke a mix of glass-and-rope buoys and nautical gas lanterns. The building also has a WIFI terrace, an interior café and an exterior children’s story hour garden.

After several alternate site evaluations, the Town voted to construct a ground-up building next to the new elementary school. Imrey, who co-designed the 300,000 sq. ft. satellite of the Louvre Museum that opened in late 2012 in Lens France, is familiar with complicated public projects. “The library design itself is a manifestation of the complex terms we needed to negotiate on behalf of our complicated client: The design gives tribute to the history of the Edgartown, it reaches toward the future, it responds to the varied patron groups, and it accommodates seasonal uses,” says Imrey.
Imrey, who also recently designed a family home nearby in Katama, is a life-long summer resident of Martha’s Vineyard.

Building Information
Client: Town of Edgartown, Edgartown, MA. Lead Designer: Celia Imrey, Imrey Studio LLC (formerly Imrey Culbert LP). Architect of Record: Tappé Architects, Jeffrey Hoover, Principal-in-Charge. Structure: Roome & Guarracino, LLC. MEP: AWE/Air Water Energy Engineers Inc. Civil Engineering: Devellis Zrein Inc. Landscape: Horiuchi Solien Landscape Design. Contractor: Maron Construction. Photographs: Bob Gothard. Area: 14,900 sq ft. Cost: $10.2m.
About Imrey Studio LLC
Imrey Studio LLC, a registered woman-owned business, is an architectural studio that specializes in museum and library design. Their designs focus on elegance, economy and clarity. They provide design solutions that highlight institutional missions and goals while articulating public experience and use of individual spaces. www.imreystudio.com
About Celia Imrey
Celia Imrey, AIA Associate, LEED AP, received her Masters of Architecture from Yale University and her Bachelors of Arts from Brown University. She has been the principal designer and director of her own design practices for over 18 years. Imrey’s prior architectural experience includes working for I. M. Pei, William McDonough and Partners, Pei Cobb Freed and Partners and with artist Vito Acconci. In addition to her practice, Imrey has taught at Columbia University/Barnard College, Yale University and Brown University.