From the Sacramento Public Library Website

The new Valley Hi-North Laguna Library opened August 29, 2009, which replaced the smaller library branch on Mack Road, Sacramento.

The 20,300-square-foot Valley Hi - North Laguna Library features such amenities as:

• A browsing area with newly-released books, CDs, and DVDs
• Separate children’s and teen reading areas
• Fiction and non-fiction collection and reading areas
• A magazine area
• Public computers with Internet and word processing
• A Friends of the Valley Hi-North Laguna Library sale area
• A community meeting room which can accommodate as many as 100 people
• Food court for refreshments and socializing
• Three study/tutoring rooms
• Self-check out machines for library books and other materials

The City of Sacramento and the Sacramento Public Library are committed to making their libraries “green buildings” that are beautiful, functional and high performing. Noll & Tam Architects led the project team in the environmental design of the new, high-performance, Valley Hi-North Laguna Library to have it achieve a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold-level certification. LEED is a national standard, adopted by the United States Green Building Council, whose energy rating-levels are silver, gold, and platinum. Designers worked closely with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and conducted a computer simulation model to optimize the building design which exceeded California Energy Code Title 24 by 34 percent through the following solutions:

• To create an optimal daytime condition, without artificial lighting, the library building is orientated to capture the most natural light. On the southern façade, light is controlled using horizontal and vertical sunscreens. The roof of the northern façade is raised to provide diffused light, which is ideal for the library’s main reading room. The southwest facing clerestory windows has been finely tuned to further enhance the quality of light in all of the interior spaces. This not only saves energy, but creates a comfortable setting with a pleasant view.
• Thick concrete walls, sandwiched with a layer of special insulation, lessen heating and cooling costs within the 20,300-square-foot library branch.
• Specialized building designs, include a natural ventilation tower, efficient lighting, and highly-efficient air-conditioning and heating equipment.
• LEED-goal consideration was also to give the library landscaping, featuring drought-tolerant plants and an innovative rainwater-capture filtration roof system.

Information derived from the Sacramento Public Library Website