The city’s master plan envisioned that the central library would anchor a new civic center on the west side of Alexandria along the prominent thoroughfare of Duke Street. By organizing the internal programmatic functions as a series of distinctive volumes around a public courtyard, we established an axis that gestured toward the future development. The building is topped by a dozen roofs that recall the community’s roots in the historic Old Town. Inside, the various library departments gain their own identity within the open plan by the forms of the ceilings beneath the distinctive roof lines.