Cruzen-Murray Academic Library: a beacon for the University

True to the College of Idaho’s vision for the space, the Cruzen-Murray Library in Caldwell is a light and airy environment that gives students a sense of being surrounded by something much larger than themselves.

Designed by Richärd Kennedy Architects, the library eschews the cloistered spaces for quiet study typical of traditional academic libraries, embracing instead a dynamic environment that offers students ample opportunities for intellectual exchange.

Cruzen-Murray Library, reimagining a learning space

The plan inverts the traditional 20th-century library diagram of a great central reading space surrounded by stacks, offices, and meeting areas. Teaching classrooms and administrative offices form the core of this library, also serving as a hub for vertical circulation. To allow for future adaptability in response to evolving technology and pedagogical needs, the team designed a flexible floor plan with access flooring to distribute ventilation, power, and data resources.

The west side of the library contains its ground-level entrance, which doubles as a welcoming invitation to the campus. Along the western edge, a terraced landscaped amphitheater provides round-the-clock access to a technology lab on the library’s lower plaza level. Inside, the library’s public and social spaces are arranged on its west side, facing an existing campus quadrangle, while quiet study and individual spaces are protected by its stacks to the east.

Upon entry, users are greeted with a sculptural stair that leads to a large reading room overlooking a two-story civic gallery. A convex cedar ceiling spans the second level, giving the space a warm and acoustically pleasant atmosphere. At night, the library glows softly like a lantern, an effect amplified by the richly expressed ceiling.

Sustainability and campus impact

A series of passive and active measures work together to significantly reduce the library’s energy and water consumption, including on-site management of all stormwater run-off and a geothermal heat pump system.

In addition, the library is wrapped with an insulated glass curtain wall shaded by a series of perforated metal fins, all carefully arranged to draw natural light into its interior spaces throughout the day. The fins spiral around the building’s elliptical shape, rising at the entryway to invite users inside.

Since the library’s opening, the College of Idaho has reported a sharp increase in library visits. Moreover, the space has become a celebrated hub of campus life, demonstrating how libraries are much more than sources of information.

The library, recognized with a Library Building Award from the American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association, has since welcomed a new writing center and expanded instructional technology support, while student groups and teams have relied on the space for gatherings. It has become a signature building for the growing college campus.

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