Auburn's Rural Studio students reveal Newbern Library

Newbern Library ribbon cutting Auburn University Rural Studio revealed its latest project, the Newbern Library in Hale County, on May 2. (Carla Jean Whitley/cwhitley@al.com)

975 days.

8,200 bricks removed by hand.

362 sheets of plywood.

4,942 drilled in a ceiling.

$63,000-worth of donated materials.

More than 7,000 books donated.

"They say it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a really big village to raise a library," Ashley Clark said Saturday to several hundred people gathered outside the Newbern Library.

Clark and her fellow Auburn University Rural Studio students Morgan Acino, Stephen Durham and Will Gregory, saw their village gathered around them during Saturday's ribbon cutting at the small-town library in Hale County. The library will celebrate its grand opening this summer. The quartet of students comprised the design/build team that oversaw the project from concept to completion.

Auburn University's Rural Studio has for 21 years taken immersive, hands-on learning to another level. Senior-level architecture students leave the college town behind, relocating their lives to the West Alabama town of Newbern. There, the students meet with clients such as the Newbern Fire Department (2004), Hale County Animal Shelter (2006) or individual homeowners. The student teams design and build structures to serve the clients' needs, and has over the years worked on more than 150 projects.

As this group of students worked on the library, they met with librarians who offered insight into how the building's design would influence its work. Representatives from other West Alabama towns helped the students understand the role of a public library in a community. In a rural community like Newbern, a library can be even more of a social center than it might be elsewhere.

The structure itself is an icon in downtown Newbern. The old bank building, donated to the library board by the Walthall family, was built in 1906 but in recent decades sat vacant. During Saturday's ribbon cutting ceremony, the students and architecture department faculty emphasized the importance of respecting the building's history while adapting it for the library's needs.

"This is just the beginning," said Rural Studio Director Andrew Freear. "I think they've given Newbern and the Newbern Library Board a huge foundation for being successful."

Several hundred Newbern residents, Rural Studio graduates and their families gathered under Natchez Crape Myrtles in the library's adjacent courtyard to listen to remarks from Freear and others.

The Newbern Library Board gave the student team the new facility's first four library cards. In turn, the students presented the library donated books in the names of key contributors. The team recognized the library board with "The Public Library: A Photographic Essay" by Robert Dawson; "The Gardener's Garden" honored the library's gardening committee.

Following the ribbon cutting, those gathered filed through the structure, an expansion of the town's historic bank building, and past a print that bore a saying meaningful to the students and board:

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."

DETAILS

Learn more about Auburn University Rural Studio at ruralstudio.org. You can also track the history of the Newbern Library on its project blog, newbernlibrary.ruralstudioblogs.org.
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