Architecture, Planning, Interior Design - Middle Tyger Branch Library

Public Buildings

MIDDLE TYGER BRANCH LIBRARY

The Middle Tyger Branch Library is built on land donated by Springs Mills to the Town of Lyman. It represents the culmination of an intense fund-raising effort to provide a facility capable of responding to a 50% increase in the population in western Spartanburg County over the last decade with an equal projected increase over the next two decades. McGarity Gilmore Forrester was responsible for planning, architecture and interior design on this project.


The Library features a wooded setting and a dramatic panoramic view of the Middle Tyger River. Site context and low maintenance were primary determinants of exterior materials which include brick and stone walls with aluminum windows and metal trim.
The building was designed from the "inside out" by finalizing the preferred furniture layout first and defining the limits of the respective spaces and their relativity afterwards to achieve optimum access, circulation and spatial relationships as well as plan economy.
The entire back wall including the semicircular cantilevered reading room is floor-to-ceiling tinted glass to capitalize on the view of the Middle Tyger River below.