City Council last week got an initial glimpse at plans for the city’s new central library in a presentation focused on building uses and schematics. The presentation, accompanied by preliminary drawings, offered plenty of hard numbers: 200,000 square feet, six stories, 200 parking spaces, and three entrances to the building’s Cesar Chavez location abutting the Seaholm redevelopment, just off the newly built Lance Armstrong Bikeway and a trail along Shoal Creek. And don’t forget the numbers on the price tag: Primarily funded by $90 million in bond money voters approved in 2006, the total expense is expected to come in closer to $120 million.
The presentation also included a more conceptual discussion of the amenities the center would provide: an eco-friendly building with a green roof; ample natural lighting; rainwater harvesting; grand, interconnected staircases; and a bike porch to park two-wheelers. It also includes several nontraditional library amenities, such as a cafe and two “reading porches” overlooking Shoal Creek and Lady Bird Lake for outdoor reading.
Moreover, presenters Sid Bowen (with design company Shepley Bulfinch) and David Lake (with the Lake|Flato Architects firm) and Assistant City Manager Bert Lumbreras sought to emphasize the building’s technologically sustainable bona fides – accentuating and embracing evolving technology including e-book lending, ample space for electronics to plug in, and expanded computer terminals.
“We had come to the table basically with a proposition that this should be the best day-lit library in the United States – inherently sustainable,” said Bowen. “But what’s really important in terms of sustainability isn’t so much LEED points but future-proofing. In 2007, the Kindle was introduced; in 2010, the iPad was introduced. The whole character of the way information is being delivered is changing more rapidly than we can imagine.”
Library details will receive further vetting Oct. 20, when an item to proceed with additional planning for the facility is scheduled to come before council. After that, groundbreaking and construction are scheduled to start in summer 2013, with an opening planned for fall 2015.
This article appears in September 30 • 2011.