Columbia-Based Builder Chosen for Silver Spring Library

Silver Spring's new library will have more than just a zip code in common with one of Montgomery County's last big construction projects in the area—it will have the same builder. The county's general services department announced Wednesday that Columbia, MD-based Costello Construction, the firm behind the Silver Spring Civic Building, was chosen to construct the new facility. 

Costello was one of nine companies pre-approved by the government to make a bid for the project, Patch reported in July. 

The Silver Spring Library building, located at the corner of Wayne Avenue and Fenton Street, will be five stories high and 90,000-square-feet. The library will occupy the third, fourth and fifth floors of the facility. The county wants to lease the basement and first two floors to Pyramid Atlantic, a nonprofit arts group, with the agreement that regular workshops and classes for the public will be offered, according to a release from county government. 

The library will feature meeting rooms, a disability resource center, a computer lab, a study room and tutoring and program rooms for children. The building will include an art gallery on the first floor and a coffee bar. Designers have also planned to create an entrance to the Silver Spring Purple Line station inside of the building.

About $69.5 million was approved by the county council for the project, which is expected to be LEED Silver-certified, the third-highest score given by the United States Green Building Council for energy conservation and environmentally friendly design and construction. 

The library, which broke ground August 2010, is in the second phase of construction, which is estimated to take about two years to complete, according to county officials.