The Seattle Public Library and Department of Neighborhoods invite residents to share their "hopes and dreams" for the new Ballard Library and Ballard Neighborhood Service Center from 7 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. Monday, June 4 at Adams Elementary School, 6110 28th Ave. N.W., in the cafeteria. For more information or to request accommodations for disabilities, call David Kunselman, Library project manager, at (206) 386-4096.
Plans call for construction of a 15,000-square-foot branch library in Ballard. The building also will house a 3,600-square-foot neighborhood service center.
The Library currently is negotiating with U.S. Bank to buy the property at 22nd Avenue Northwest and Northwest 57th Street. The bank site, which is across the street from a future park, was included as a possible library location in Ballard's municipal center master plan. It is within one block of Market Street and offers high visibility.
The existing 7,296-square-foot Ballard Library was built in 1963. The new branch will have more seats, an expanded collection of 66,700 books and materials, expanded reference areas, larger areas for children and young adults, more computer space, a meeting room and parking.
At the meeting, key staff members will review the project and answer questions. Then residents will have an opportunity to describe their vision for the design of the new library and neighborhood service center and discuss preferences in services, collections, programs and artwork. Members of the Seattle Public Library board of trustees and the Library's Capital Program Office, City Librarian Deborah L. Jacobs, designers from Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, and representatives from the Department of Neighborhoods and Seattle Parks and Recreation will be available to answer questions.
Representatives from the Ballard Library Project Advisory Committee also will attend the meeting. The committee grew out of Ballard's municipal center master planning process. The committee is made up of members of the community and the design team, the business community, and representatives from the organizations that will be housed in the new building. Its purpose is to articulate the community's goals before design begins.
The new $6.5 million library will be funded by the $196.4 million "Libraries for All" bond measure that Seattle voters passed in 1998. The plan calls for improving or replacing all 22 branch libraries, building five new branches and building a new central library. For more information about Libraries for All, visit the Library's Web site at www.spl.org and select "Libraries for All capital projects."
The neighborhood service center will be funded by the $72 million Seattle Center/Community Centers levy that Seattle voters passed in 1999. For more information about the Seattle Center/Community Centers levy, call Erin Devoto, Seattle Parks and Recreation at (206) 233-7937 or visit the Parks Web site at www.cityofseattle.net/parks and select "Community Centers Levy Program."
(For more information, call Caroline Young Ullmann, communications assistant, 206-615-1627.)
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Content modified: 17 May 2001
12/30/2005
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