TEXTILES.ORG
Buckeye, Ariz., is one of the nation’s fastest growing cities, and the city wanted its new Coyote Branch Library to excite and attract growing families and stay true to its western culture. Moss Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Ill., read the city’s intentions perfectly, designing a 40-by-30-foot canopy for the central children’s reading area that resembles an open book. The tensioned fabric book’s colorful “page” graphics are based on an Arizona author’s children’s book, “There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea,” and show the bright blue skies, iconic cacti and pink desert sands of the southwest—along with the wildlife protagonists of the book.
The canopy book’s angled “hardcover” features silicon edge graphic (SEG) extrusions and fabric panels in bright yellow, a color exactly matched by two sections of shelving that resemble huge books. The “pages” consist of printed pillowcase tension fabric stretched over round tubing and an acoustic liner. Moss also manufactured and printed three circular pillowcase tension fabric signs 144 inches in diameter by 42 inches high, delivering the library’s key messages: “Be Inspired. Be Engaged. Be Connected.” Since the library’s opening, patrons of all ages have converged on the floating book display to admire the centerpiece of its new library, which is double the size of the only other library in Buckeye.
