The view from the ground floor plaza of the new Vancouver Community Library offers a quick guide to navigating the collection.Vancouver is bringing out the pomp for its new library's grand opening Sunday, with some 45 minutes set aside for ceremony and speeches and a downtown block of C Street closed for the occasion.
And with good reason. The new, 83,000-square-foot library will be the second-largest in the Portland-Vancouver area, bested only by the
. It includes
, including a fifth-floor outdoor terrace with a view of the Columbia River and a children's museum-like Early Learning Center.
It's also marks an end of two decades of expansion, not just in
, but in Oregon's Multnomah and Washington counties, too. The respective library systems say they're built out, and just in time.
The slumped economy has put a squeeze on libraries that depend on property levies for their operating budgets, and asking voters for more money -- especially for new construction -- is a risky venture when belts are tightened.
"We couldn't have done this today," said Fort Vancouver district Director Bruce Ziegman. "We wouldn't have even tried."
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If you go
What:
Vancouver Community Library grand opening
Where:
C Street between East 8th Street and East Evergreen Boulevard, Vancouver. The library is at 901 C St.
When:
1 to 6 p.m. Sunday, July 17
The district went to Vancouver voters three times to pass a bond measure to build the new library and replace another, the 24,175-square-foot
that reopened in 2009. The first two fell short of the 60 percent needed – by just half a percent in 2006.
But before a third vote in 2006, the Vancouver-based
development company donated a downtown site for the new building and an anonymous donor put up $5 million for the project. A $43 million bond measure to build the new libraries passed with 63 percent of the vote.
"We're really in many ways blessed by the timing," Ziegman said. "We were persistent. As a result, people have got two new libraries, one in downtown Vancouver that will serve them for decades. Thank goodness we tried this when we did and didn't wait."
The new Vancouver Community Library, located at 901 C St. in downtown Vancouver.The economy did leave behind a $165 million development Killian Pacific had planned alongside the new library. The project,
, envisioned offices, apartments, retail space and a boutique hotel, centered by a public plaza and anchored by the new library.
Elsewhere in the metro area, libraries have also suspended their building cycles.
Multnomah County passed its last levy in 2006 with funding for new libraries in Portland's Kenton neighborhood and Troutdale. That levy is up for another vote next year, and includes no money for new facilities.
In Washington County, every public library has been rebuilt, remodeled or expanded since 2000 except the Cornelius Public Library, said Eva Calcagno, manager of the Washington County Cooperative Library Services. For now, no new projects are on the table, though
.
Libraries in Clackamas County, however, do have a number of projects in the planning stages. Voters there formed a library district with a permanent tax in 2008, and each library received a one-time infusion of funding for capital improvements.
The
in Happy Valley plans to move into a 17,000-square-foot building formerly occupied by the county government this fall, and projects are also in the works in Gladstone, Canby, Sandy and Oregon City.
North of the state border, meanwhile, Ziegman said the Fort Vancouver district will shift its focus from expansion to growing its collections, including more digital offerings.
"I think we're going to stand pat for a while," he said. "We really need to focus on the operation side now."
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