Eleven years in the making, the 42,000-square-foot building is a roaring success, as evidenced by door counts more than double its predecessor. Its entry, located at the nexus of pedestrian circulation from downtown and nearby schools, welcomes patrons in a copious lobby with a café and gallery space. From it, visitors are beckoned up to a grand living room space whose steam fireplace, natural light, and access to the fiction collection create a friendly place where everyone is welcome.

Splaying out from the entry are library and program wings. The library wing accommodates the children’s library, circulation services, and offices on the first floor; the grand living room space on a mezzanine floor; and non-fiction collections, study rooms, loose seating, and a teen area with digital workspace on the second floor. The children’s library is organized into precincts by age, with a “tween cave” tucked under the living room and an outdoor garden. The low-slung program wing features a flexible, dividable, flat-floor program room to accommodate up to 300 people, and a demonstration kitchen.

New Canaan is known for its modern architecture, home to icons like Phillip Johnson’s Glass House, the Noyes House, and the serpentine Grace Farms complex. Referencing modern traditions with its forms and composition, the building is clad in dry-laid stone, punched with dramatic glass elements adorned with vertical metal caps of varying heights that mimic New England's upland forests. The stone drifts this way and that, melding into the landscape with the glass playfully stepping over and touching down. Its expansive flat roofs support a photovoltaic array that can provide up to 50 percent of its power. Long overhangs provide shade and reduce energy use.