And do not Put Off too Long. But when you are ready, go! Patient preparation has fitted all for wise decision and prompt action. There is a psychological moment at which public or donor may be carried by storm, and the necessary funds can be secured. He who hesitates then, is surely lost. When the money is secured, and sufficient experience or advice has been accumulated, the sooner you decide to begin to plan, the better. Beginning to plan, however, is remote from actual building. “Well lathered is half shaved” is a homely proverb, and the analogy holds in library planning, even for the smallest building. Months to formulate and fit together the first sketches, months to work them out practically with the architect, many conferences with the building committee, time after decision to prepare working plans, time still to invite and compare bids, then the slow processes of building,—there is a deal of delay ahead after the decision is made to build. You have just about got half through when you finish these preliminaries.
The time to build is therefore when you are very sure everything is ripe for action;—methods, preparation, plans, enthusiasm, harmony, good advice, suitable agents, sufficient funds.
Size and Cost
At the outset either the cost must be estimated as the first step toward getting an appropriation, a subscription, or a donation; or the cost has already been provided for, and the first step must be to see how large a building it will allow.
In the former alternative, it is necessary to ascertain how many books are to be provided for, how many readers there may be in the several departments to be covered by the work of that particular library, and how large a staff can be afforded, with ample elbow room for them all. The figures thus collected will enable an expert to give the number of rooms and passages required, with a maximum and minimum size, and a tentative location of each room. By deciding on the number of stories and the height of each, the architect can then pack all into the least possible space and calculate first the area of each floor and the cubic contents and cost of an adequate building, to be verified by the average cost of similar libraries in similar locations, built under similar conditions. A rough but surprisingly close estimate of the proper limit of cost may be reached through reversing Carnegie’s stipulation for a pledge of an annual ten per cent on cost for running expenses; and taking ten times what the library costs a year to run, or will take after completion. The result is testimony to the wisdom of Mr. Carnegie’s library advisers.
In the latter alternative the librarian and architect can at once get an approximation to a size which the cost will allow by dividing the sum available by the same pro forma cost per cubic foot. Having thus arrived at the maximum of size, they can tentatively assume the height and divide the cubic contents by it, to find how many square feet can be afforded to a floor. After this comes the puzzle how to get into this space the proper collocation of all the rooms wanted, as large as they ought to be.
See interesting calculation as to number of users to be provided for in the different departments (in England, not quite the same as ours) for towns of various sizes, by Champneys,[86] quoting Duff-Brown. His tables may suggest a basis of calculation here. See also Duff-Brown in his own book.[87]
The Cubic Cost. This question is not difficult, if you can reach a fairly exact standard for cost per cubic foot. Of course this will vary with the material used, and with the cost both of material and labor in different localities. Various authorities quote it variously. In the problems I have personally investigated, in eastern New England, I have found that thirty-five cents cost per cubic foot, for a simple warehouse-construction building, including stack and furniture, was not too much to allow. But Miss Marvin[88] says that in the Middle West the building proper will cost from 11 to 14 cents per cubic foot, or large solid buildings 20 to 25 cents, plus 10 per cent of the total for fees, furniture and finishing. As I always include these items in my calculations, the estimates are not far apart.
Our English brethren are able to do somewhat better if Champneys is correct—he ought to be, he is an architect. He says, “As a general rule, 1s. per cubic foot is probably about the right allowance in London, if all fixtures are included, while 9d. or 10d., or less, is sometimes sufficient in the provinces.”[89] Perhaps, however, he does not include fees and furnishing.