January 2003

Ran: San Diego Union-Tribune North Inland - Thursday, January 9, 2003

New Library To Be Hub Of Knowledge

$13 million MiraCosta facility opens next week

By: Lisa Petrillo

OCEANSIDE - The river of knowledge leads to the font of all wisdom.

Ambitions are grand indeed for the "font," the new MiraCosta College Library and Computer Center, a $13 million structure opening next week to start the spring semester.

The two-story library is nearly three times the size of the old one, and it holds not just traditional books and reference materials but more than 400 new computers for academic use.

The gleaming Apple iMacs and black, flat-screened, Internet-linked Dells are deployed throughout the tutoring center, math learning center, writing center, teaching innovation center, television studio, teleconferencing center and dozens of other high-tech academic programs housed in the window-filled building.

The "river" is embodied in the winding sidewalks dotted with shell fragments and blue glass shards, walkways that snake through the campus and lead to the new library and the new tiled, multilevel fountain outside what is not the largest building on campus.

The 48,000-square-foot library and accompanying fountain provide a new center to the 40-year-old campus, said Joe Moreau, dean of academic information services.

"Before, all we had was a lot of grass," Moreau said. "Now we have a bona-fide hub."

Architect Mike Kant designed the fountain with lots of surrounding, benchlike walls to invite students to gather and linger, using the same materials as the library exterior walls and blue-green tiles to draw the elements together.

"I liked the river effect that carried throughout the river-of-knowledge metaphor," said Kant, of LR Design Associates in Oceanside.

All these innovations and gleaming new tools into gaining greater knowledge are available not to just MiraCosta's 11,000 students but to the general public. Not only can the community use the library, but nonstudents can check out books, videos and materials if they register for a special identification card and pay a $5 annual fee.

The project was built with state bond money, and true to the collaborative nature of such public projects, MiraCosta officials and students had a major say in the design. They were the ones who demanded the heavy use of windows in the design, affording sweeping views of the ocean to the west and mountains to the east. They even got windows that open to catch the ocean breezes on the hilltop campus.

Officials credit Ann Carli, dean of arts and sciences, with the idea of decorating the walkways with stones and shells such as those found in a river bed, instead of going with the wavy, blue-tinted concrete that the budget-minded Kant had planned.

Carrying out that river-of-knowledge metaphor proved costly.

"The state doesn't pay for beautiful things like this," Moreau said, adding that the college obtained separate funding for its glittering walkways. "If this walkway was straight and narrow and boring, then the state would pay."

Kant aimed for a building that blended into the campus and looked distinct, and he used multiple textures throughout, combining rough stone with plain fabric, molded concrete and gleaming metal. He used indirect lighting and lots of natural lighting, including a dramatic, 25-foot-wide skylight.

The tiled lobby is deliberately sparse, airy and open, reaching up to both floors. The college plans to use the space for art exhibitions, receptions and special cultural events. The first foray into public receptions in the new space will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Jan 17, when MiraCosta will throw a party to officially celebrate the library's opening, after five years of planning and more than a year of construction.

Library patrons step down to the first floor for most of the information services, and either climb stairs or ride the elevator to the second floor to reach the stacks, study carrels, lounges and offices.

One of the highlights of the new library is that for the first time, all of MiraCosta's information services are under one roof. Before, Moreau said, the tutoring center was housed elsewhere, and the technical services, help desks and other programs were scattered across the campus in trailers and in various crannies.

The tutoring center has been expanded, adding more computers and tutors available free to students. The college created a new writing center, also free, to help students improve their writing skills and help them with assignments. The math learning center also was expanded; it assists students with their mathematics skills and helps returning older students bone up on their basics before they launch into college-level classes.

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