Pacific Highlands Ranch Library

The Pacific Highlands Ranch Library 18,000 square foot library lies at the nexus of the community’s retail, residential, educational and recreational centers.
Connecting the different community centers is a 3.5-acre public promenade that terraces down from the Pacific Highlands Ranch’s Village Marketplace to the community park, recreation center and schools.
The library program includes a main reading room and children’s reading room. Six conference rooms that separate the Teen Reading Room from the adjacent library areas. A large Community Room and Idea Lab with 3d printers and scanners.
The library’s design is inspired by the area’s agrarian past, and the community’s “Santa Barbara” influenced aesthetics. The three exterior porches create a Community Porch connecting the library to the public promenade and serve as the front door to the community. Operable glass walls provide direct access to the porches, creating opportunities for indoor / outdoor events.
The entry courtyard is a public art installation by a San Diego artist Janelle Iglesias. It is inspired by cuneiform clay tablets, and the languages of the peoples that inhabited this part of San Diego. The courtyard surfaces are clad with terracotta tiles with abstracted letters creating words in English, Spanish and native Kumeyaay languages
As part of the design process, the design team met with community members that were very invested in how the new library would fit into their community, functionally and aesthetically. The design team also held a four-hour Saturday afternoon event at the Village Marketplace where community members were encouraged to provide their input on how the building design should look moving forward.
This LEED certified Gold facility has a comprehensive collection of library materials and is an event and meeting hub for the community, children and adults.