New Library Is Bold but Flawed : Rancho Penasquitos: Chaotic mixture of materials inside is among weaknesses.

The new Rancho Penasquitos branch library makes a bold, vaguely Southwestern statement in a community known for architectural conservatism, but its bulk and deep-red stucco are overbearing, and it has annoying flaws, including a chaotic blend of materials inside.

No telling how the library--opened last month and San Diego’s largest branch at 20,000 square feet--might have turned out had it been designed by the city library system’s first- or second-choice architect.

Coombs Mesquita of San Diego was the front-running architectural firm but didn’t get the job, at least in part because it failed to meet the city’s minority-owned requirements. Fernando Mesquita, the firm’s Portuguese-American co-owner, has since had the firm added to the city’s list of minority-owned architecture companies, but at the time, Portuguese-American ownership didn’t qualify the firm as minority-owned.

Instead, the city hired CLIO Architecture & Planning in 1988, with partner Dan Leonard handling negotiations. Partners Jorge Engel, who is Mexican-American, and interior designer Karen Cooper helped CLIO qualify as a minority/woman-owned firm.

But Leonard left shortly after the contract was signed and architect Gene Cipparone, an original partner, took over the company as sole owner. The city’s contract was with CLIO, not Leonard or other partners, and work proceeded.

Controversy aside, Cipparone’s design has its merits, and Rancho Penasquitos residents seem to universally like it.

“I’m impressed,” said Ray Lish, browsing the stacks. “It’s nice and open and bright.”

“I think it’s beautiful,” added Edna Zacharias. “It’s some improvement over the old one,” she said, a reference to a 2,700-square-foot modular building the library occupied for nine years.

Residents also seem to appreciate the new building’s departure from predominant pseudo-Mediterranean architecture in their community.

“I think it’s very nice,” Zacharias said, when queried about the bold, contemporary forms. “Everything doesn’t have to match (the community) exactly.”

Situated next to a condominium development to the west, a police station to the east and a future YMCA to the north, the library, with its size and strong color, doesn’t mesh with the edge of the residential district as well as it might, but it makes good use of its site.

Red sandstone walls rise from a base of gray concrete that anchors the building. Cipparone used double entrances to tie the building to a side parking lot on the east and Salmon River Road on the south.

Each entrance consists of an outdoor plaza leading to glass entry walls that lend the building a pleasing transparency. The entries are joined by a long central lobby featuring a circulation desk covered with red sandstone.

But these well-orchestrated effects are compromised by horrible baby blue ceramic tiles used on the lobby floor.

To lead visitors in from Salmon River Road, Cipparone employed a free-standing red stucco wall that begins near the street and rises as it angles back, next to an entry walk, before it slices through the building along the edge of the lobby. This continuous plane of reddish stucco helps unify indoor and outdoor spaces.

As the front wall angles back from the street, it defines flower beds planted with low, drought-tolerant plants that go well with the building’s smooth, rugged Southwestern character: thick adobe-like walls with deep arched window openings and reddish sandstone detailing.

Cipparone capped the entries and lobby with a high, slanting ceiling of Kal-wal, an opaque white material that lets in daylight.

This central “spine” of the building separates the library’s primary public space from more private areas, such as staff offices, restrooms and community meeting rooms.

An impressive blend of natural light inside comes from Kal-wal skylights, windows and light fixtures. Cozy reading rooms are tucked in bays that project from the north wall, with vertical side windows pulling in daylight.

Organization of the interior is complex and in some ways jarring, with aisles running off at many angles and a ceiling that combines circular and square forms with wavy undulations along one edge. Materials compete unpleasantly too. Within a few feet are mauve carpeting, aqua carpeting, and sandstone border strips set in a blue tile floor. Designpoint of San Diego was the consultant on interior furnishings, fabrics and colors.

Curved strips of reddish concrete extend from the rear entry into the parking lot, adding to a cacophony of black asphalt, white and blue parking stripes and gray concrete.

Children will appreciate the library’s large children’s wing, with a triangular corner reading nook fitted out as a three-dimensional puzzle of interlocking pillows. San Diego City Librarian William Sannwald specified plenty of space for children, since today’s libraries are like second homes to youngsters whose parents both work.

Although this isn’t the city’s worst branch library, it doesn’t meet Sannwald’s high ideals. Ironically, he is much happier with the detailing of a new branch in the Carmel Valley community, near Del Mar, designed by Coombs Mesquita, due to open early next year.

Asked if the Penasquitos branch seems too busy with forms and interior materials, Sannwald said, “It is, it’s just too much, it doesn’t fit together.”

And, he concluded, “The selection of an architect is very complex. There are a number of factors that go beyond whether an architect is the one I think is best qualified. Even after a particular architect is selected, one of the things we’ll look at in the future is whether the principal contact with the firm initially is the one we’ll be working with. That wasn’t the case in Penasquitos, and we ended up working with an architect we didn’t know until well after the contract was awarded.”

DESIGN NOTE

A lecture and panel discussion on historic preservation will be presented Sunday from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Athenaeum Music/Arts Library in La Jolla. It is the final hurrah of the “San Diego Lost & Found” preservation exhibit and related events presented by Mesa College and the Athenaeum.

Architects Jeffrey Shorn and Charles Kaminski will lecture, and the panel will be CCDC executive vice president Pam Hamilton, attorney Marie Lia, architect Robert Mosher, preservationist David Swarens and City Architect Mike Stepner, whose last day on the job will be Friday because of city budget cuts, barring unforeseen council action Monday.