Sahuarita, Arizona, USA
The new Sahuarita Regional Library provides an improved space for users and staff with an expanded collection, access to cutting-edge learning services and technology, and a unique customer-centric experience.
Sahuarita Regional Library by Line and Space won an American Architecture Award 2025 from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
The new 17,000 sf. Library includes collection areas for children, teens, and adults, as well as several study/meeting rooms, a maker space, gaming center, and a business development space that can be used for collaborating and developing job skills. A large multi-purpose room is designed to open up to an outdoor patio where special presentations and performances can be hosted for the public. Building relief air is reused at the outdoor patio to temper and cool the space, increasing its use during the hot desert summer months.
As positive views are lacking from the site, visual focus is on the adjacent desert landscape instead. A low ribbon window provides views to earth berms and bioswales planted with native vegetation irrigated with rainwater collected from the roof and hardscapes. The berm also helps mitigate noise from the adjacent major arterial street. Steel “shard” structures, an abstraction of the area’s mining activities, rise from the south elevation to define outdoor reading patios and allow diffused natural light into the interior space. Large overhead fans help temper these patios for comfort during the summer months.
Materials such as exposed steel, concrete and masonry help this high-use public facility grow from its site and were selected for durability within the arid Sonoran Desert climate and minimal maintenance.
Architect: Line and Space, LLC
Design Team: Henry Tom, Jared Logue, Johnny Birkinbine and Bob Clements
Interior/Furnishings: White Baux Studio
Structural Engineers: Martin, White & Griffis
Mechanical, Plumbing and Fire Protection Engineers: Kelly Wright & Associates
Electrical Engineer: M3 Engineering, Inc.
Civil Engineer: Presidio Engineering, Inc.
Audio Engineer: McKay Conant Hoover, Inc.
Landscape Architects: McGann & Associates
General Contractor: Concord General Contracting, Inc.
Client: Pima County Public Library
Photographer: Bradley Wheeler
