36 texashighways.com
DRIVE | FAMILY
Photo: Tom McCarthy Jr.The revamped 58,000-square-foot
Midland County Library at the Plaza
opened to the public in May 2019. Visitors
enter through a tunnel lined with moni-
tors scrolling community bulletins and
library activities. Inside, a brightly lit dig-
ital world awaits. In rural West Texas,
the No. 1 internet access point for a mid-
dle-class home is often the library, and
Trischitti says he wants his library to be
the place to do school research, apply for
financial aid, and look for a job.
In the “living room,” formerly the main
entrance, there is a 40-inch-wide sculp-
ture made of recycled books, steel, and
resin by Lubbock artist Jonathan Whit-
fill. Guests can browse books and read on
colorful, modular furniture while bathing
in the stimulating light of a 42-foot-wide,
12-foot-tall LED-powered digital wall
with original artwork. The flexible, open
floor plan projects abundant natural light,
and while the living room bustles with ac-
tivity, there is a traditional quiet reading
room with a crackling fireplace.
The children’s area has new computers,
a freshwater aquarium, a kinetic sculpture
by Jeffrey Zachmann, and a Lite Brite Ev-
erbright wall. Across the hall, the young-
adult space has a video-gaming area with
wall-mounted screens. The library will
host gaming tournaments, hoping to en-
courage teens to improve interpersonal
skills by gaming at the library rather than
at home.
New nature-themed meeting rooms
transport occupants with space, sky,
and forest themes. “We’re in the desert,
so we want to have scenes of water
and mesquite trees,” Trischitti says.
“We want people to feel like they can
leave Midland without leaving Midland.”
301 W. Missouri Ave., Midland. 432-688-4320;
co.midland.tx.us/150/public-librariesA DIGITAL WALL
is an eye-catching
feature of the Mid-
land County Library
at the Plaza.