ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the development of the Learning Theater, a library environment designed to support ambitious learning, teaching, and research. The Collaborative Solutions Group’s design event format was used to generate ideas for the new facility. The process of gathering ideas from the college community and developing use cases is used to explain the motivation to create a unique facility that would add a new dimension to library services and support a new generation of experimentation at the college. Students, faculty, and administrators participating in the design events developed a wide range of innovative uses. Key requests included great flexibility and the ability for end users to design the space to support each of their activities. This desire to align the environment with learning, teaching, and research goals was strikingly similar to ideas driving the design of the Rhizr digital learning platform noted earlier. The design evolved into a set of six layers: existing physical elements, new physical elements, lighting, furniture and furnishings, data, and media. Each layer was intended to provide greater capacity without introducing new constraints. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the first year of operation for this new library venue.
