Designs for a new library building pared down in size and budget
have earned the City Council
’s approval and moved toward a spring 2007 opening.
Designs for a new library building pared down in size and budget have earned the City Council’s approval and moved toward a spring 2007 opening.
Chris Noll and Merideth Marschak of the Berkeley-based Noll and Tam Architects introduced a model and schematic drawings of the 28,000-square-foot building’s exterior, floor and site plans to show the council.
The next step is to fine tune the drawings to the design development stage, due by early August. Groundbreaking is planned for next spring.
The entire design team, including county library representatives and the city’s project manager and budget tightener Gary Dam met in February, Noll said, to decide how to get the best building for the funds available.
Building costs had to be cut further because site preparation work proved to be more costly than anticipated. The lot facing DeWitt Avenue has a steep slope and an underground spring needing management.
The reduced budget is necessary because the city did not receive any state bond money. City Manager Ed Tewes and his staff had pulled together $17 million from a collection of Redevelopment Agency and other funds to cover construction, site, landscaping and furnishing costs for a smaller, less expensive structure.
The original 40,000-square-foot building would have cost at least $21 million.
The floor plan includes a large program room, a break out room for teens or others, a large window facing El Toro Mountain to the west, sales and sorting rooms for the Friends of the Library, plenty of computers and a divided children’s area with their own restrooms and a separate spot for pre-schoolers.
Patrons will enter the new library from West Main Avenue, on a site just behind the current library and across the former pond at City Hall. The site has room to expand to the west – when the money to build two extensions is found.
Marshak said the design will consider lowered outside lighting so the neighbors in the quiet residential neighborhood won’t be annoyed.
Councilman Mark Grzan said he expected more.
“I see a very passive kind of facility with no activity room for children to build things,” Grzan said. “We learn kinesetically, visually and auditorially.”
Councilman Larry Carr pointed out that such activities are carried out in other facilities.
“We need to keep in mind that the community is building multiple facilities,” Carr said. “The kinds of activities you are describing are those already happening at the community center today.”
Grzan was not on the council when the original plans for a 40,000-square-foot library were presented. They did include much of what Grzan found missing, including a “cozy” fireplace.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy said he was bothered with the modern appearance of the building; the previous plans blended more with the existing 1973 buildings on the Civic Center site. Noll explained that the difference came from shrinking budget and that, even so, the new building would be quite attractive – just different.
Councilman Greg Sellers said he was more excited about the plan than he thought he would be.
The Library Commission had seen the plans on Monday and sent a pronouncement that “the design has merit” plus a short list of concerns mostly about the long distance between the handicapped parking and the front door (180 feet), between the drop off parking spaces to the drop off box (360 feet) and about the less-than-highly visible drop off box.
Noll and Tam will be paid $1.493,072 to design and process the new building (including engineering fees and lighting design. The firm, which is a leading designer of Bay Area libraries, also leads in “green” design.
Operations and maintenance costs are paid by Santa Clara County Library System after the city provides the building.
Carol Holzgrafe covers City Hall for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at ch********@mo*************.com or phoning (408) 779-4106 Ext. 201.
