Vancouver’s new downtown Community Library attracted volumes of business folks, citizens and politicians to a Tuesday evening party to celebrate the project’s completion.
Nearly 1,000 people showed up for food, drink and tours of the $38 million concrete and glass structure at “Eat, Drink, Read — No Business After Hours,” sponsored by the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce. The event allowed Fort Vancouver Regional Library District staff to show off their new building on the southeast corner of C Street and Evergreen Boulevard, said Patty Duitman, the library district’s budget director.
“The construction is substantially completed,” she said.
A July 17 grand opening is scheduled for the building, which is now ready for the installation of interior shelves, furnishings, electronics and books.
Paid for by a $33 million library facilities bond that Vancouver voters approved in 2006 and a $5 million anonymous donation, the five-story project was built by Portland-based Howard S. Wright Constructors and designed by architects at The Miller Hull Partnership in Seattle.
The style, remarked one attendee, “reminds me of the Centre Georges Pompidou,” a post-modern-style Parisian museum and library.
That comparison wasn’t familiar to Sue Vanlaanen, the district’s communications director.
However, Vanlaanen said the building, with its north-side and south-side walls of glass, was designed to allow pass-through views of the Columbia River and natural light to reach the historic Academy building, situated across the street from the new library.
Five floors to explore
Tuesday night’s visitors enjoyed self-guided tours of the library, although staff members were posted at the entrances to the different floors to describe services planned for each level.
Library guests also were the first to sip cocktails and sample party food on the fifth-story outdoor terrace, atop the building’s south-side atrium.
When it opens this summer, the new Vancouver Community Library will replace the district’s longtime main branch at 1007 E. Mill Plain Blvd.
The new facility will feature a ground-floor teen center, second-floor offices for administration, third-floor sections for young children and juvenile reading collections, a fourth-floor section for adult nonfiction and fifth-floor sections for adult fiction and biographies. The fifth floor’s Vancouver Room will feature a cozy fireplace. The first-floor lobby include’s a five-story “Knowledge Wall” mural of local sites and themes.
The new library will house 69 Internet-connected computers, compared with the current main library’s 16 computers. Seating in the new building will accommodate 386 people, while the old library has seating for 164 patrons.
Tuesday’s event was co-sponsored by the Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation, a nonprofit that secures donations, funding and endowments beyond the scope of the library district’s operating budget.
