SMU Library Renovation and Expansion

Location: Oakland, CA
Owner: Samuel Merritt University
Completion: February 2013

Libraries have changed significantly since Samuel Merritt University’s Library was first occupied in 1985. As part of the overall campus Master Plan, Kava Massih Architects worked with the University to expand and modernize the John A. Graziano Memorial Library. The renovation improved ADA accessibility, and provided expanded space to accommodate the newly unfolding programmatic needs of a modern health sciences library.

Improvements included new entrances, more space and a new circulation desk. The 7,000 square feet of library space expanded to 11,000 square feet to accommodate new research, group study and seminar spaces. The library stacks stayed roughly the same but the new computer lab and campus-wide wireless network now serves more than twice the number of students who now use the Library. Additional space was designed for quiet informal reading areas that are still important today as they were in the past