A Climbing Wall in a Library?!?!

The Free Library received a grant from the William Penn Foundation and additional funding from the Knight Foundation to create and build play-spaces in several of it's libraries.  One of the libraries chosen was Cecil B. Moore (CBM) in North Philadelphia.  CBM is in the 19121 zip code,  in which statistics show there are many children who have low-literacy skills, live in poverty, and have possibly experienced some type of trauma, whether directly or indirectly.  In other words, these kids deserve something nice.

This project is a collaborative effort by the Free Library of Philadelphia, Digsau Architectural Firm, ErectorSets, Smith Memorial Playground, & Studio Ludo.  

Community engagement sessions were conducted at the library with children and their parents in order to answer the question of what they would really like to see in their library.  The children had many creative ideas, some of which were contradictory.  For each child that said they wanted a quiet space, there was another who wanted a place to really move around.  

With this feedback in mind, we had a design session with representatives from the groups above as well as the library staff.  We considered story times, nooks for hiding in, literacy, space for books, logical problem-solving, and a way for children to get out their wiggles with gross motor movement.  Hence, a climbing wall!

See below for photos of the end product.  Installation is scheduled before the end of this year.  I will follow up with more information on how the children are using the space soon after that.