Wimberley Library

In Texas Hill Country, an All-Electric Library Expansion Teaches Water Conservation

The design for the 8,960-square-foot expansion of Wimberley’s library made the handling and conservation of water a core element of the new facility, which serves a variety of pressing community needs.

Set amid oak and elm trees, the library’s design represents the confluence of the existing structure, the new addition, the natural landscape, and the community’s diverse interests. The new all-electric building doubles the size of the existing library, creating new youth and teen stack spaces and reading areas, a craft lab and demo kitchen, and a free access multi-purpose room for community use.

The outdoor spaces became active, programmable parts of the design. LPA’s landscape team worked with designers to preserve 104 mature live oak and elm trees while clearing only nine for construction. Strategic notches and turns in the building design create shaded outdoor spaces. Redirected stormwater forms a creek that flows under a pedestrian bridge, connecting the addition to the existing one-story, cottage-like library.

The expansion is one of the first projects in the state to incorporate the guidelines for a new program, One Water, focused on long-term water stewardship and conservation. One hundred percent of water is managed on site through a system of retention basins, above-ground cisterns and swales doubling as natural playgrounds. Rainwater and air conditioning condensate are used for toilet flushing and irrigation. Cisterns and bioretention basins make water a visible part of daily life.

The building’s orientation, shading and abundant daylight from north-facing windows is expected to use 92% less energy than an industry benchmark.