Reclaiming Place and Purpose

When senior Morgan Fazio received her fall 2025 assignment, it wasn’t the typical design brief. She and her classmates were tasked with conducting research, gathering data and designing a prototype to help the renovation of the Design Library in Brooks Hall. 

The assignment was for an elective class called Design Process. But before Fazio and her classmates could dive in, one thing needed to be established: Most of them had never set foot in the space they were redesigning. 

“Unless you used the Design Library for a specific project, no one knew much about it,” said Fazio, who is majoring in design studies with a business concentration.

Her instructor, Assistant Professor Andrés Téllez, was struck by how few students were familiar with a resource he once relied on daily as a College of Design student himself. He attributes students’ unfamiliarity to their reliance on digital tools accessible from anywhere, and to the fact that few classes are held in Brooks Hall.

“This project was a great opportunity for students to become familiar with our library system,” Téllez said. “So often focused on their classes, they can forget that they’re part of a huge institution with hundreds of different programs and wonderful resources. Our own library is an important resource for them — or at least it can become one.”

With that awareness came clarity of purpose. “We started off with the problem that not many people know about the Design Library’s existence,” Fazio said. The class rallied around a central question: How do you redesign a space to make it more useful to patrons?

Students reviewed user feedback surveys gathered by a steering committee for the renovation plans, then broke into groups to tackle different design aspects. Some used floor plans to reimagine furniture arrangements. Fazio’s group focused on ambiance — lighting, acoustics, atmosphere. Ideas for the space included a catwalk, an art gallery, multipurpose rooms, quiet study areas and a café.

ReDesigning for the Future

Téllez’s class was only the beginning. Many students and faculty got to roll up their sleeves and work on the ReDesign Library Project in studio classes — an exciting opportunity for the larger community of the College of Design to come together and help shape what this space could become.

Two questions, “What is a library today, and what should it finally become tomorrow?” drove advanced architectural design studio classes in a course called Library Un-Deferred from EVOKE Studio, led by Billy Askey and Edwin Harris. 

“Libraries are one of architecture’s most enduring public institutions,” said Billy Askey, one of the instructors leading the course. For the project, Askey had students explore the historical and sociocultural roles of libraries before reimagining the Design Library as a space that is bold, welcoming and transformative — one built for how future users will discover and share knowledge.

Through the Media Arts, Design and Technology (MADTech) program, students took a different approach, using storytelling and “what-if” scenarios to imagine the library of tomorrow. The advanced multimedia production class produced a short 2D film that vividly imagines the College of Design’s library of the future.

The ReDesign Library Project looks to innovate what’s possible for the Design Library. It has also provided students with the skills to re-imagine possibilities — and prepare them for future careers.

“The industry landscape is shifting,” said Marc Russo, a MADTech professor of animation and interactive media. “With the ReDesign Library Project, students are building a portfolio that appeals not only to Pixar or DreamWorks but also to innovation labs and R&D departments.”

“It proves they can visualize complex, nonexistent concepts and make them understandable to a general audience.”

Student work from all participating courses will be shared with the architecture firm overseeing the library renovation. While it will be difficult to implement all the ideas, the ReDesign project has been an invaluable opportunity for students to creatively make a mark on NC State’s physical campus. 

“I think about what an honor it is to leave a legacy and be able to come back in a couple of years when it is finished and say, ‘I played a part in this,’” said Fazio.