Senior Engineering students at UW-Platteville, whose group went by the name of Atlas 5 Engineering, spoke to the Argyle Planning Commission about the redevelopment of the former First National Bank and Trust building in Argyle to a multi-use community center, like the library.
Kylie Quandt introduced the group. Her emphasis was in construction and all construction aspects and acted as the Project Manager of the project. Adam Zell, John Ruth, and Wyatt Wallace all had an emphasis in transportation, where Zell did analysis, Ruth worked on the parking lot design and Wallace did the green space design. Jaren Malcheski has a structural emphasis and did an analysis of the buildings structure.
The projects objectives were make sure the building could support a library, parking was adequate for village events, the outdoor space would serve village residents and the library use, and enhance the ADA accessibility.
The first alternative analysis was an additional 18 parking stalls, two ADA stalls and around 1,600 sq. ft. The traffic flow would be two way on the east and west entrances and the southern entrance would be one way. On the north side of the project, the building on the west (village owned building behind the Pecatonica Valley Leader) would be demolished and the building on the east (storage building owned by the fire department) would be relocated to the north.
The second alternative analysis was nearly identical to the first one with the only difference is the green space area was increased to 2,300 sq. ft.
The third alternative analysis had the rock area on the north side of the drive thru lane would be eliminated and a retaining wall would be placed there, opening up the traffic flow a little more.
They took the alternatives and scored them based on criteria like cost, ease of construction, traffic flow, parking quantity, accessibility, and green space. Alternative #2 received the highest scores and what the group liked the most.
Modifications to the design were to increase the parking stalls from eight feet to nine feet for ease of accessibility, which made them loose one parking stall and making the ADA parking stalls straight and not perpendicular for aesthetics reasons.
The ended up utilizing the entire drive thru. The first stall closest to the building would remain as a library drive thru window. They researched the Darlington Public Library and they mentioned who they love their drive thru window for their patrons. They then designed the second drive thru stall as a hitching post for the Amish community to park their horse and buggy.
The green space design has a fence going around, bike rack for bicycles, a space for the statue and an area for pavers to be placed that will have the names of people who would donate to the funding of the project. There will be picnic tables and benches as well.
They evaluated the building for adding in more ADA accessibility, to assist those in need to get into the basement. They found out that an elevator would be too expensive for this project, a chair lift would be unnecessary and a ramp would be excessive, therefore, they did not find any definitive ADA compliant measures to get those who need assistance into the basement. If it was a major desire to have ADA access to the basement, a chair lift would suffice.
The original design plans were rated against the current building code standards. To hold up the library shelving the floor framing needs to be rated at 150 psf (pounds per sq. ft.). The original floor framing above the basement is rated at 100 psf. The slab on grade, more southern portion of the building, would be able to carry is rated at 150 psf so their suggestion was to have the circulation desk, computers, and reading areas be on the northern portion of the building and the shelving units for the library be on the southern portion of the building. This is in line with what the design for the building has been distributed, it would just need to have the reading space and library shelving units to be flip flopped.
They also did a hydrology report on the project. With the grass and buildings being removed and asphalt being laid down, that would decrease the infiltration of water into the ground so they recommended a two ft. diameter PVC storm water pipe at 110 ft. long be put into place on the norther portion of the project just northeast of the drive thru. The parking lot would need to be resurfaced and pitched toward the catch basin.
The cost estimate was around $373,000. They broke down the cost incase it wouldn’t be able to get done in one project. That was estimated that the parking lot would be around $270,000 and the green space around $103,000. They showed of a cost of inflation to see what it would cost in the future.
This was just a presentation done by the UW-Platteville students and nothing has been decided for the design on the outside of the building as of now.