From its earliest vision to its final design, the Anythink Nature Library was created as an extension of the natural world. The library’s development was guided by a deep commitment to sustainability, environmental stewardship and nature-centered design.
Inspired by Colorado landscapes and built with eco-friendly materials and systems, the library reflects Anythink Libraries’ long-standing dedication to creating spaces that reflect nature and aim to connect people with it.
Anythink visitors can see examples of “biophilic design” across local branches with the use of wooden shelves over metal or tin, an emphasis on natural lighting and the incorporation of locally sourced, recycled and natural materials. Several Anythink Libraries feature solar panels, water saving fixtures and geothermal heating and cooling systems.
In designing and building the Nature Library, creating a sustainable, nature-centric building was a top priority.
“We set out a goal to design the most environmentally sustainable building in the city of Thornton,” Anythink Nature Library Branch Manager Maria Mayo-Peaseley said.
When the building development process began in 2022, Mayo-Peaseley attended the conference Nature Explore, where she was introduced to the Environmental Kinship Guide. The guide’s nature-based learning model presents four pillars: learning about, in, with and for nature.
As she listened to the presentation, Mayo-Peaseley’s “hair stood on end.” It was a eureka moment. “I thought: This is how we can craft a space that is experience driven, like all of our libraries, but experience driven in terms of nature,” she said.
The guide became the basis for the Nature Library’s design, and the library’s outdoor and indoor experiences are inspired by each of these four concepts.
“The design really leans into those experiences around the Kinship Guide,” Anythink Executive Director Mark Fink said.
With the core concept solidified, Anythink asked the community for input to shape the design. Anythink transformed a Wright Farms Library meeting room into a monthlong experience where customers could design a diorama that reflected how they like to interact with the natural world.
“After that experience, we had over 100 dioramas to analyze,” Mayo-Peaseley said.
The project’s architects, Davis Partnership Architects, and Anythink staff reflected on what they saw in the dioramas. Together, they created a list of phrases inspired by the dioramas that become the criteria for the library’s design, such as: “embracing the surprises and joy found in nature,” “child-like wonder, freedom,” and “create space where people can feel embedded in nature, which leads to comfort in nature.”
“The dioramas were incredibly influential because they gave us a direct window into how people imagine being in nature,” Senior Associate at Davis Partnership Architects Ben Kallechey said. “They consistently emphasized things like discovery, layered experiences and feeling immersed rather than enclosed. That translated into design moves like framing views, creating moments of surprise and organizing the building as a series of moments along a journey, encouraging visitors to explore rather than experience everything at once.”
Using the Kinship Model, the dioramas from Adams County residents and input from the Nature Library Indigenous Advisory Council, Davis Partnership Architects created a “one-of-a-kind building design,” Fink said.
The final design features space like a sunroom, immersive dark room, indoor and outdoor arts and sciences lab, as well as multiple gardens, a mud pit and an outdoor walking path — all created to entice visitors to follow the path to the next space.
The building will join other Anythink buildings with a LEED Gold Certification. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold is the second-highest tier of green building certification awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It is an internationally recognized standard for buildings that are highly efficient, sustainable, and promote occupant health. This certification notes the Nature Library’s environmentally friendly features, including hundreds of rooftop solar panels, geothermal heating, bird-safe glass on the massive windows (which also reduce the amount of lighting needed) and a vapor fireplace that releases no pollutants.
Even the building’s shape was crafted with nature and the local ecology in mind. There are few hard angles. Viewed from above, the library resembles blades of grass flowing in the wind. Natural elements spring up everywhere – from a live plant wall to indoor boulders to dried flowers and plants in meeting room wallpaper.
“The design itself is meant as a celebration of our beautiful Colorado plains landscape,” Mayo-Peaseley said.
While everyone has a different relationship to nature, the Anythink Nature Library was designed to welcome all people to experience nature in exciting, accessible ways, she said.
“It really is a space for imagination and playful learning.”
