A design-forward children’s library debuts in the Bronx

The library at Concourse House provides a homey space for women and children transitioning out of homelessness

Thoughtful spaces can delight, inspire, and provoke feelings of comfort; Michael K. Chen Architect's new children's library for the Bronx's Concourse House aims to do all three. The Manhattan-based design studio was brought onto the project at the request of a donor seeking to redesign the balcony space for the Bronx shelter that serves women with young children who are transitioning out of homelessness.

In an interview with Curbed, Michael Chen said that it was important that the petite space served a multitude of uses while promoting a residential feel. "Concourse House is a transitional home, but it's a home. So we wanted the space to be bright and cheerful," Chen said. "A lot of energy went into choosing colors and shapes that are playful and friendly to children. We also wanted it to have a decidedly residential feel."

The library occupies a mezzanine suspended over a double-height room with a dark, barrel vault ceiling. MKCA's bright and airy design for the library, with its custom open shelving with built-in LEDs and tailor-made furniture, responds to the set of restraints placed on the space by both the larger room's architecture and Concourse House's need for a space that meets a variety of uses like functioning as a reading room, meeting space, or homework hangout. To that end everything in the room is multi-use.

The design themes within the library came from "riffing off of forms that were already in the architecture," said Chen. The gentle curve of the library shelving echoes the vault of the ceiling beyond. The shelf's openness allows the small space to live within the larger area without visually bisecting it. The built-in LED lighting creates a soft glow that reaches the house's main public space below, inviting residents upwards.

The firm worked on the project for about a year, an extended timeline owing to the project's in-kind nature. MKCA completed the project pro-bono, with much of the materials and labor donated as well. Sisters Uptown, a black-owned bookstore in Manhattan, along with Chronicle in San Francisco, donated the library's reading materials.

There was so much interest in the project from the design community, Chen says, that MKCA was able to launch an online auction of bespoke furniture, lighting, and design elements that will end on Tuesday, December 18. The proceeds will fund the library's operations into the future.