Located in the heart of New Orleans’ Broadmoor neighborhood – where flooding due to Hurricane Katrina was particularly devastating – the Rosa F. Keller Library and Community Center serves as a testament to a community’s recovery and the city’s evolving relationship with water. This 10,000-square-foot FEMA replacement project incorporates the complete restoration of an original 1917 historic residence – converting it into a neighborhood community center – and the construction of a replacement library wing designed so that the two buildings can function as a single unit or independent of one another for divergent uses.

A small glazed lobby provides a minimal link between the two buildings, and a transition between the architecture of old and new. The library’s program is organized around a captured courtyard which acts as a respite for users and provides natural light to the center of the building. Program components of reading, circulation, stacks and children’s room all pinwheel around this outdoor court. The wood glue lam structure, a nod to the heavy carpentry of the bungalow, is designed to reveal this pinwheel organization and helps define independent program uses as it rises in scale from the library entry to a high point containing the mechanical core.

The project has achieved LEED certification based on a number of design and operational choices spanning from engineering systems that significantly reduce the building’s energy use to stormwater management strategies that retain nearly all stormwater runoff on site.

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Out of the Water

Rosa F. Keller Library & Community Center

New Orleans, LA, United States

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Rosa F. Keller Library & Community Center

New Orleans, LA, United States

Other Projects by EskewDumezRipple

​ Audubon Nature Institute Aquarium & Insectarium

Louisiana Music and Heritage Experience Museum

Second Harvest

Bruce Museum

Tech Square 3 - Georgia Institute of Technology

Louisiana Music and Heritage Experience Museum

The Home Building at Thaden School

Center of Developing Entrepreneurs

Maison de la Luz

Hogs for the Cause Family Center, Children’s Hospital New Orleans

Bruce Museum

Miller Park

The Shop at the Contemporary Arts Center

The Park at South Market

Teatro Santander

WWL-TV Studio Headquarters

The Beacon at South Market

St. Pius Chapel & Prayer Garden

Crescent Park

Ace Hotel at 600 Carondelet

Rosa F. Keller Library & Community Center

New Orleans, LA, United States

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team

Articles

Audubon Nature Institute Aquarium & Insectarium