Main Library

Grand Re-opening

Main Library
301 W. Congress, Lafayette, LA 70501

December 2013 - half-way through the construction process

We are 7 months into the Main Library renovations.  That's nearly the half-way mark for construction.   Here's a few pictures from the December 3rd site visit.  The rest of the pictures can be found here

New Bike Racks

First Floor

October 2013 - 5 months in

We are 5 months into the planned 14 month construction schedule.  Exterior work continues on the parking lot repaving.  The drive-thru book drop / pickup window is being formed. 

The front entrance canopy is also being formed.

And we are excited that our 'books' are in place

Inside, the work on each floor continues and is on schedule.  See the complete set of early October 2013 pictures here.   We should be planning a grand re-opening around this time next year!

Early September

 
The new front entrance canopy is being formed.

 Framing continues in the Children's Department.  Here's a view of the entrance

The opening where the public stairs were on the 2nd floor has been filled in.

Walls are going up on the 3rd floor.  This is a view of the Genealogy/Local History/Research Room

Re-paving the parking lot continues.  Preparation for installation of air conditioning duct work and equipment continues. 

See the rest of the pictures here.

Multitasking

Electrical and plumbing rough-ins, metal studs forming office spaces and features, metal frames, brick work, concrete forming, HVAC ductwork and prep - all happening in early July.

Here's a recap of what will be on each floor:
1st: circulation, children's, teens, study rooms
2nd:  meeting rooms, adult fiction, public computers, study rooms, reading room
3rd:  adult non-fiction, genealogy & local history, public research computers, study rooms, technology lab

Here are a few pictures from a recent site tour.  The full album can be found here

Construction update - June 27 2013

If you ever attended a program or meeting at the Main Library, you remember the column in the middle of the room that limited the seating arrangement and visibility. 

We are moving our meeting room to the 2nd Floor.  This allows us to remove the column and create more usable space.  This week, the Contractor removed the column! 

The Children's Storytelling Pit is no more --

But prep is underway for the new STORYCASTLE!

See the rest of the construction pictures from June here!  Thanks to our architect MBSB Group for many of the pictures.

Construction update - May 28th

Our contractor, Ratcliff Consruction, has been working since May 1st on demo and prepping for the new infrastructure - HVAC, plumbing and bathrooms, electrical, stairway and ductwork. Construction should be complete within the next 13 months. 

 View the rest of today's pictures here

The former front entrance facing West Congress Street.

 

 

The hole in the ceiling is where the old stairway was.

Formerly the children's storytelling pit, temporarily a pond.  The cafe/vending area will overlook Mary's Garden and Live Oak Society member # 6140 LE LIVRE-CHENE DANS LE JARDIN DE MARIE

 

 

The new front entrance (in progress) will face Lafayette Street.

 

Main Library construction - May 2013

The general contractor began on May 1st. The renovations are scheduled to take 14 months, with another 3 months for furniture, equipment, collection, and staff move-in. Here are pictures from the first week of the renovations. If the slide-show doesn't work (requires Flash), access the photos directly from this link

Renovation Work out to Bid

The next phase of the Main Library Project is underway with the bidding of the renovation work. Bids will be opened on March 19, 2013 at 3 p.m. Notice to Contractors can be found here. Here's the most recent architect's rendering.

Main Library update

We're excited to report that Phase I (interior demolition) of the Main Library project has been completed. Phase II (the renovations) should be out to bid this Fall and is expected to take about 14 months to complete, plus about 3 months to move back in. Check out the photos here or if you have a Flash-enabled device, see the slide show below

Temporary Library being readied

Library staff members are selecting books and other materials to move to the temporary downtown library at 538 Jefferson Street. This is the old "Jefferson Street Market" and will be the temporary home to our most popular library books and other collection items that are currently housed at Main. The computers from the Main Library will also be moved to the temporary facility. The temporary library will open in early 2011.

The existing 63,000 sq ft Main Library will undergo a complete renovation beginning in 2011. The entire facility must be vacated for the renovations to begin. Proposals were recently opened for temporary warehouse space; a decision on location is expected in early January 2011. The temporary warehouse will house that part of the library collection that cannot fit in the other libraries. The warehouse collection will be accessible via the online catalog. Patrons can request items and library staff will pull from the warehouse and send to the library of the patron's choice.

Seeking Temporary Space

RFPs have been published seeking temporary spaces for a downtown library, a working warehouse, and administrative offices. These spaces will be occupied during the Main Library renovations. Details are available at http://www.lafayettela.gov/finance/dpt050rfp.asp

Only the temporary space for a downtown library is required to be in the downtown Lafayette area. Please see the specifications or contact LCG Purchasing for more details.

Main Library DD Presentation

Architect Allen Bacque with MBSB Group presented the current renovation plans for the Main Library to the Library Board and Building Committee at a public meeting on Monday, April 20th. The Library staff, Board, and Building Committee are currently reviewing the plans, suggested colors and carpets, and budget estimate and hope to take action on moving forward within the next few months.

The Main Library facility was opened in January 1973. It has held up well over the years. As part of the renovation, major infrastructure improvements - including a new HVAC system, sprinkling the facility, and bringing other systems up to today's building codes - will occur. In addition, the third floor will be renovated to include public collections - adult non-fiction, reference, genealogy - as well as a computer/technology classroom. The second floor will house the adult popular collections and fiction collection, as well as media (DVDs, CDs, audiobooks). The first floor will house the Children's Department and the Teen Department, as well as a space for people to have a snack while studying or visiting the library. The large meeting room will be relocated to the 2nd floor and smaller meeting and study spaces will be available on all three floors. The Friends of the Library will accept donations and sort for their booksales in dedicated space accessible on the first floor of the library. The Main Library is also the headquarters facility for Administrative and Technical staff as well as equipment that serves the 10 facility library system.

The renovation project will take approximately 24 months, including move out, demolition, renovation, and move in. The current main library will be closed during this process. The Library Administration is currently investigating options for a temporary, small facility to provide library service to the area during the construction, as well as options on keeping much of the book collection available to the public. Several have questioned the availability of collections such as genealogy during this time. We hope to relocate such collections to other Lafayette Public Library locations to keep them available to the public during the renovation. We will let you know once we have the details.

The architect's fly-by rendering of the exterior and interior spaces can be found on YouTube .

The architect's PowerPoint presentation to the Board / Building Committee can be found here

Main Library Design Presentation

Allen Bacque, MBSB Group, will present the design plans for the Main Library renovation project to the Library Board on Monday, April 20, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. The meeting will be in the Main Library 1st Floor meeting room. The public is invited to attend.

Here are the preliminary furniture floor plans. Remember this is early in the design phase. Besides having to get within budget, it is inevitable that things will change. The video fly-by is still linked in the blog post below this one, or directly on youtube. Meanwhile, enjoy what we've done and let us know what you think. Click on each image for a larger view.

First floor thoughts and comments by Library Director - a reorientation of the entrance to face Lafayette, along with a nice extended entrance canopy that identifies us. Stairway relocated adjacent to elevators, which are adjacent to circulation desk. Children's is on the first floor, as is the Teen Space. Children's adds a storytelling room (the pit must be removed for ADA reasons) and a crafts room. Study rooms and a larger group study room are in Children's and Teens. Currently we have NO study rooms in the library. The Friends of the Library will have space for collecting, sorting, and housing, and distributing used books. This is currently in the unfinished part of the 3rd floor. In the remodel, the Friends space has been moved to the first floor - where the garage currently is located. We hope to reclaim the garage space and allow the Friends to be more efficient in their volunteer efforts as they support the Library. Oh, and did I mention we hope to have the drive up book return and pick up window that we are putting at our new Regional Libraries. It was a challenge in the Main Library Renovation, but the Architects have come up with a solution.

 

Second floor thoughts and comments by Library Director - adult fiction, periodicals, biographies, large print, languages, and new books are on this floor, along with an information/help desk. The adult AV collections are on this floor. Currently we have DVDs, Videos, and CDs. The space and shelving will be flexible enough to accommodate whatever media (or downloadable media) are 'in' libraries in the future. You will notice that, in addition to the study rooms added on this floor, we've moved the meeting rooms up here. We are hoping to afford to remove the column that sits in the middle of our current meeting room - giving us a smaller, but much more usable space. Most of our meetings are for smaller groups (10-50) and the trade off of a smaller "large" meeting room - gaining a small meeting room, conference room, and many study rooms is advantageous. The Library Foundation, another one of our great support groups, will have office space on this floor.

 

Third floor thoughts and comments by Library Director - finally, after over 30 years, we are planning to open the 3rd floor as a public area. We plan to move Adult Non-fiction, a quiet reading and study room, Genealogy space, and local history to this floor. The area will have an information/help desk, numerous study rooms and a classroom sized-space for distance learning. Of course there will be public computers, online catalog access, and wireless Internet access on all floors. Administrative offices and IT moves to the third floor.

 

Preliminary Redesign

The Schematic Design was presented to the Library Board and Building Committee on August 22, 2007 by Allen Bacque and Hugh Stevens, MBSB Group. The preliminary floor/furniture plan was presented by Denelle Wrightson, PSA-Dewberry.

The design was well-received by the Board and Committee, with the only concern that of budget. A Summary Statement of probable costs was presented by Allen Bacque. Significant cost items include the required modifications to the elevators, sprinkler, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems to meet today's codes. An asbestos abatement project will also be required as part of the renovation. We are proceeding into Design Development with a focus on identifying and refining probable costs associated with spaces and components of the new design. Discussion will continue as we strive to meet budget given the recent significant increases in construction related costs.

The design: front entrance reoriented to face Lafayette Street, with an extended entrance canopy. First floor includes the checkout/help desk, children's department, and teen space, and a cafe/vending/informal reading area. Second floor includes an information/help desk, the adult fiction collection, the dvd and cd collection, and meeting rooms. The third floor will be open to the public and includes an information/help desk, the adult non-fiction collection, a technology lab, genealogy/local history, and quiet reading and study room. Administrative offices will move to the 3rd floor. All floors will have a variety of group study and small study rooms, public computers, seating, and wireless internet access. The stairway will be relocated adjacent to the elevators and will go up to the third floor (currently it stops at the 2nd floor). A drive through book return and book request pickup window has been added. The Friends of the Library will occupy space on the first floor allowing easy drop off and handling of donated books. The Library Foundation will have office space on the 2nd floor.

See the flyby animation of the schematic and give us your comments. Note, you may have to wait up to a minute for the video link to appear, depending on traffic at blogspot or at youtube.

Building program

Denelle Wrightson, A.I.A. with PSA-Dewberry presented the final draft of the program to a meeting of the Library Board of Control and Library Building Committee on January 29, 2007. The program discusses the space needs for library collections, technology, meeting spaces, staff workspaces as well as other considerations for the design. The document was received as an exciting new vision and direction for our Main Library and was unanimously approved.

The document will be turned over to the architect for the project - MBSB Group and schematic design work will begin.

The renovation work is expected to begin by 2009.