b'Bridging Past andPresent with GlassSouth Orange will get one new library by renovating two old onesBY TIA SWANSONL ikemanyartists,architectAndrewtransforming from sleepy village to town. BermanNow those two buildings and their histories will Berman thinks metaphorically. Taskedsays its design is indicative of the communitys as- be joined through the addition of a markedly mod-with redesigning the villages library, apirations.ern glass space that will become the librarys entrance building in which he spent a consider- The library built next door in 1968 able part of his adolescence, Bermanhas always seemed something of an ugly decided the library should be symbol- stepsister by comparison. Red brick out-ic of the community itself. side and cement block walls within, it Its imperative we work with a true understand- went up when public purses were limit-ing of the community in order to design somethinged and the mood was hardly expansive. that fits, he told a crowd of about 100 who gatheredBerman called it stiff, formal. South in the library building in late April to get a look atOrange was an established suburb, wor-the design his company had produced. riedlessaboutreputationandmore What fits, it turns out, is the buildings that areabout the tax rate. Still, swept clean, this already here. There is the original, handsome, stolid,library is remarkably bright and expan-stone library at the corner of Taylor Place and Scot- sive. Compared to the first library it is land, with its wood-paneled reading rooms and largeimmense. Its large windows are on anThe new lobby is intended as a meeting point. Food and drink will be allowed in hopes folks will gather there with friends. Unlike other sec-windows. It arrived in 1896, as South Orange wasinstitutional, not a residential, scale. tions of the library, talking will be encouraged!12/ matters magazine / summer 2024'