Jackson County Library Complex

Awarded:
• AIA South Carolina, Student Choice Award, 2012

• The Historic Preservation Foundation of North Carolina, The Gertrude S. Carraway Award of Merit, 2012

• North Carolina Public Library Directors Association, Outstanding New Facility Award, 2011

Perched majestically 107 steps above Sylva, NC’s Main Street, the historic Jackson County Courthouse presided for nearly 100 years over this small mountain community and remains one of the state’s most photographed buildings. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and serving as a courthouse for 80 years before being replaced by a new County Justice Center, Jackson County asked McMillan Pazdan Smith to author a feasibility study to evaluate the potential for restoration and possible alternative uses.

The design team concluded the most appropriate use for this civic icon would be to renovate the existing structure into office, meeting, and program space for local non-profit organizations including the Jackson County Genealogical Society, Arts Council, and Historical Society and add a new two-story, 20,000 SF addition to house the Jackson County Public Library.

McMillan Pazdan Smith’s complete restoration of the original architectural elements magnified the building’s historic grandeur, and it is a huge benefit for area citizens that this community structure has been preserved with a new mission.