The University leadership has decided to remove most volumes from the main campus to focus on a new usefulness for their library—to become the ‘leading edge of their emphasis on innovative, interdisciplinary and team-based research’.

Built in the 1990’s, Snell Library is the center of academic research for Northeastern University’s diverse graduate and undergraduate community– heavily used with more than 1.2 million annual visitors. With books being relocated and available ‘on-call’ in eight hours from a remote warehouse, the vast floorplates are available to be comprehensively re-programmed for space and function to support collaborative interdisciplinary research.

Partnering with library planning experts Brightspot Strategy, we engaged the University and library leadership in visioning and space planning workshops to completely renovate and transform the building into an active hub to support the University’s ‘experiential learning’ pedagogy.

Flexible architecture allows spaces to shift in use as students, faculty, and library specialists are engaged around project work and interpretation of data—day and night. Four academic and research ‘centers’ anchor five floors of space – Digital Scholarship, Experiential Learning Lab, Design and Creativity Hub, and Special Collections. The ground floor is expanded to create a new Entrance, Event Space, Café, and Gallery that invite the campus community to a broad use of the library.
The project is four phases, beginning in May 2022, so that the library can remain open throughout construction.