Re-Envisioning the Design Library
Goals, Student Work, & Next Steps
Re-Envisioning the Harrye B. Lyons Design Library
Students across the College of Design have tackled a project to re-envision the Harrye B. Lyons Design Library in Brooks Hall.
The Harrye B. Lyons Design Library is the only library on campus not to have been renovated in the last 15 years. The College of Design and the NC State University Libraries have jointly begun work on re-envisioning the Design Library as a process designed to lead to an eventual renovation.
A Data Collection Project
In the spring of 2025, the Libraries’ User Research Team, working with the Design Library Super Committee, conducted an extensive online survey and four shorter pop-up in-person surveys, one in each building of the college. They surveyed College of Design students, faculty, and staff about their needs and wants for the Design Library and the Design Library space. An immense amount of data was collected from the surveys and analyzed by the User Research Team, and several reports were created documenting the findings.
For the next phase of the project, students worked with both the raw data and the analysis of the data to create projects of their vision for the re-envisioned Design Library.
About the Library
The Harrye B. Lyons Design Library, one of the branch libraries in the NC State University Libraries, supports the College of Design and has collection emphases in architecture, landscape architecture, graphic design, industrial design, and art and design. As part of the NC State University Libraries, the Design Library is dedicated to empowering creative teaching, world-class research, and expansive community engagement. Unfortunately, the physical space of the library limits what can be done; this re-envisioning seeks to enable the Design Library to renovate the space and expand the capabilities of the Library.
Participating Classes
Students from almost all areas of the college worked on re-envisioning the Design Library
Students were given access to a shared folder containing both the raw data and all the analyses done by the User Research Team. Different classes chose to utilize the data or analyses in their own ways, and each class had a distinct project to complete, all to update and re-envision the Design Library for the way students and faculty work today and into the future.
Select one of the boxes below to view the students’ work and discover how Design students envision the future of the library.
10 classes participated in the project
ADN492: Special Topics in Art & Design
See the ADN492 Projects
GD301: Branding Interaction Service Design
See the GD301 Projects
ARC402/502/503: Re-Envisionining the Design Library
See the ARC Projects
ID201: Industrial Design Studio I
See the ID201 Projects
GD 202: Designing for Settings, People, and Use
See the GD202 Projects
GD571: Design Research Methods
See the GD571 Projects
ADN202: Design Studio: Art & Design in Context
See the ADN202 Projects
ADN460: Junior Animation Studio
See the ADN460 Projects
Next Steps
Students’ work will feed into the next steps for the Design Library Super Committee.
Committee Report
After the exhibition, the Design Library Super Committee will create a final report that will synthesize all the data, analyses, and student work, and provide a vision of the re-envisioned library. This report will eventually be used by an architecture firm to begin bringing the vision to life.
About the College of Design
The NC State College of Design prepares students for a career in design through interdisciplinary engagement, innovative exploration of technologies, and a core foundation of design thinking and practice. The College of Design offers undergraduate, graduate, Doctor of Design, and PhD in design degrees and currently has over 900 enrolled students. NC State University is a leading public research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina.