The Silver Spring Penguin

Photo: MoCo exec Leggett showed off designs for the new library Saturday. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

After months of public meetings and debate, MoCo exec Ike Leggett finally revealed exterior designs for downtown Silver Spring’s new library.

“This will be a monument to the community,” he declared Saturday at a book festival inside ye olde library on Colesville Road.

The glass and limestone building will sit at the southwest corner of Wayne Avenue and Fenton Street, with a section hanging over a possible Purple Line light rail station. Access to the library’s third floor entrance will be at either Wayne Avenue or along Fenton Street, where escalators and stairs will be installed. Sorry, trebuchet fans.

“We wanted this library to look snappy with pizzazz,” David Dise, director of the county’s general services department, told the 45 people packed into ye olde library’s large meeting room. The new joint would serve not only as a bookend (ha ha) to the Downtown Silver Spring development, but also as a gateway to the underdeveloped Fenton Village neighborhood, he explained. (more…)