Partner Selection

The building committee has helped guide the new library project, making critical recommendations to the board and providing skillful oversight to ensure the project’s success. To achieve our vision of a new library, the board knew we needed the right partners.

Architect Selection

After an initial reach-out to 21 library-focused architectural firms, the Skaneateles Library building committee reviewed 11 RFP responses, and invited four firms for in-person meetings in Skaneateles. Committee members then made trips to Ohio, Vermont and Massachusetts to visit three finalist firms and to view at least two of each firms’ libraries.

The library’s building committee made a unanimous recommendation to the library board after an intensive six-month process, and in March 2023, the Skaneateles Library Board of Trustees unanimously approved hiring the award-winning Oudens Ello Architecture to design the new library at 75 Fennell Street.

Oudens Ello Architecture is a Boston-based firm that has designed beautiful libraries and other civic and cultural buildings in New York, Vermont and Massachusetts.

Read our press release.

Construction Management Selection

We followed a similar RFP process for the construction management firm selection, sending RFPs to eight firms and conducting in-person meetings with four firms. In November 2023, the board hired LeChase Construction Services, a full-service construction management and general construction firm that has worked on many community projects of all sizes in the region. They will provide construction cost estimates, manage the bid process and oversee construction.


Have questions? Contact the Skaneateles Library Board of Trustees at feedback@skanlibrary.org.