Now that the new and improved room has opened, teens have a chance to really open up their horizons

Nestled between the computers and the Teen Study Room was the Teen Room, where a horde of anxious parents, children and teens stood behind the red ‘ribbon’ at 11:05 a.m. on Sept. 11 and waited for the ribbon to be cut. The crowd cradled paper cups of coffee between two hands and chattered excitedly, quieting suddenly to a whisper when Community Librarian Mark Fink stepped up and said, “As this occasion is very important, we’re using red duct tape. Yes, we’re cutting the red tape.”

With that, the ribbon fell and people trickled into the room to celebrate the opening of the Cupertino library’s new Teen Room.

Matadors in CSF, Key Club and APUSH t-shirts drank coffee in between the shelves and watched others compete at Wii Tennis. The room had been furnished with shiny new everything—shiny new tables, green sofas, shelves and even trashcans. Tables “reserved for middle and high school students at all times” lined the windows, which provided a second-story view of the courtyard. Across the room were larger study tables and computers.

The Teen Room’s designer Lamberto Moris provided many more little details, such as the purple, curlicue-shaped floor chairs for individual study and the sofas for relaxed conversation.

At first sight, the tables in between the windows could be mistaken for oval-shaped yin-yang symbols. As Moris pulled one table apart, it became apparent that the table (aptly named “Comma”) was actually two comma-shaped tables put together.

Since the room received many donations from the Cupertino Rotary, Friends of the Cupertino Library and the Cupertino Library Foundation, it had to be grand. Moris had to push the envelope and push the design to adapt to the new times.

“A library is infinity under a roof,” reads a quote by writer Gail C. Levine in the library courtyard. On Sept. 11, the Teen Room proved that this holds true not only for the infinite reaches of the worlds within books, but also for the infinite possibilities created when places such as this are built for the nurturing of our community.

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