Visitors encounter community spaces enlivened with colorful artwork from murals to a covered events plaza before even entering Portland, Oregons renovated and expanded Midland Library by Colloqate and Bora Architecture & Interiors. Near the entrance are a series of orange and pink hexagonal sculptures resembling childrens building blocks, by the artist team HYBYCOZO. A new entry canopy provides a covered space for farmers markets, fairs, and other events. The canopys underside is festooned with a vibrant collage in tropical colors of people, flora, and fauna by artists Lillyanne Pham and Paola De La Cruz. Its metal overhang and adjacent facade panels are inscribed with symbols of stars, mountains, suns, and rippling water, drawn from the cultures of people who live in the surrounding neighborhoods. Inside, where a security checkpoint has been removed, the foyer offers information about upcoming events: a teen council, a graphic novel book club, and drop-in violin lessons. In the nearby double-height central space, beneath a ceiling mural depicting the nearby Columbia River, shelves are lined with books in not only English but Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese, and Spanish.The library is a double-height space, with a ceiling mural depicting the nearby Columbia River. (Josh Partee)Though books are a librarys reason for being, the Midland building itself, through its interwoven artwork, interactive and community spaces, and an overall welcoming spirit, is like a collection of stories. I cant overemphasize how central that is to the work that we do, because people live their lives and recount their lives through stories, Karim Hassanein, codirector of New Orleansbased Colloqates Portland office, told AN. The art and the architecture are not separate when it comes to creating a sense of place and reflecting culture. They have to work together. Midland is among the first projects completed in a multiyear, $387 million bond-funded campaign to renovate and replace eight Multnomah County Library (MCL) branches, most of which are several miles east of Portlands downtown, a part of the city where the patron base is demographically diverse. We have so many different communities and cultures represented, so many age groups from very young to very old, which for me is the leading edge of library service, said Midland Library administrator Greta Gutierrez.The existing Midland branch, completed in 1996 and designed by Portlands Hacker Architects (replacing the circa 1958 original), established the axial, natural-light-filled space that remains today. But the library lacked community meeting spaces. Its entrance, at the buildings southeast corner beside a busy thoroughfare, also presented some challenges to creating that neighborhood feel, Gutierrez said.The librarys interwoven artwork and community spaces reflect a desire to connect to the buildings raison dtre: storytelling. (Josh Partee)Colloqate and Boras redesign added 6,000 square feet, and now Midland is fronted by glass-walled community rooms and an art gallery. Because the entrance was relocated from the southeast corner to the midpoint of the buildings south facade, near these new spaces and with a larger foyer, it becomes more of a social space and a crossroads rather than a pass-through area. We have a better ability to see people coming in and help them, Gutierrez explained.Colloqate and Portlands Bora, the design architect and architect of record, respectively, deliberately blurred those roles in an equal exchange of ideas. Since its 2017 founding by Bryan Lee, Jr., the nonprofit Colloqate has become a leader in the burgeoning design justice movement. Its framework prioritizes the input of marginalized communities throughout the design process. Still, Lee, a Harvard University Graduate School of Design visiting critic and the current president of the National Organization of Minority Architects, became wary of Colloqate being pigeonholed as an engagement firm, he explained. The whole point of design justice is that engagement and design are not distinctly different processes. Its one process. So our ability to have conversations that influence a design is necessarily the next evolution of what this type of work should be, specifically in civic, cultural, and community spaces.The librarys redesign maintained the light-filled spaces and included subtle changes, such as lowering the height of bookshelves to improve visibility. (Josh Partee)Colloqate and Bora first partnered on a workforce training center for Portland Community College in 2023 and have collaborated on renovations for an additional MCL branch and (with LEVER Architecture) Portlands Jefferson High School. After Hassanein and architect Sophia Xiao-fan Austrins decided to leave Bora to open their own design justicefocused firm, Lee invited them to instead cofound Colloqates first office outside New Orleans.As one of Boras first city library projects, Midlands design drew from the firms portfolio of performing arts facilities, which, like libraries, increasingly accommodate myriad activities from morning to evening. The traditional model of a library, you have a majority of spaces used for the collection. In this new model we worked with MCL to turn it into three buckets, said Bora principal Jeanie Lai. One is tables and seating where people can hang out. One is the collection. And then one is meeting spaces. We tried to make them all equal in the use of space: a community-centric library for modern times. Thanks to a separate operations center and warehouse nearby, Midland can offer a rotating curation of books based on whats popular. Plus the height of bookshelves lining the librarys main space was deliberately lowered in the new design for better visibility. For staff, its easier now to track whats going on from one end to the other without running around, Lai explained.Just beyond the bookstacks is the gathering circle, a multiuse space formed by curving benches and seating, inspired by Indigenous gathering circles and Black story circles, framed by a Kanani Miyamoto mural. An adjacent childrens area includes interactive play features and books in several languages; teen spaces and sensory rooms are also available. An outdoor interactive childrens garden, designed by Portland landscape architecture firm Place, is accessible through a nearby glass door.Curving benches and seating were inspired by Indigenous gathering circles and Black story circles. (Josh Partee)A combination of community meetings and engagement programs with paid facilitators guided public input into a variety of design choices, from the interior color palette to the exterior canopy. Ive worked in libraries since the 90s, including a brand-new library opening. Ive never seen a process like this before, with such free-flowing ideas, Gutierrez said.Midlands community engagement has continued well past the design stage, to establish a continuing feedback loop that may lead to additional changes over time. The hope is that this dialogue will also expose the design profession to new voices.Hopefully some kid that we involved actually looks into architecture because they were like, This is kind of fun. I want to do this, and it feels possible, Hassanein said. Thats how were going to change and diversify the profession.Brian Libby is an architecture and arts journalist based in Portland.