Library Costs - Build New vs Renovation

By Michael Goldman with Deborah Marks, co-founders of Citizens for Sunnyvale Parks and Green Spaces

Deborah Marks is also leader of Sunnyvale Urban Forests Advocates
http://www.SunnyvaleUrbanForestAdvocates.org/

This post uses published data to establish that a reasonable estimate for costs for library building is under $500 per square foot.  This post is all charts and data tables.  For some real life examples of the very nice libraries you can build in California for less than $500/sq.ft. see here:
http://cspgs.blogspot.com/2015/08/nice-libraries-for-nice-prices-1.html
and here:
http://cspgs.blogspot.com/2015/08/nice-libraries-for-nice-prices-2.html

In 2007, Sunnyvale put on the ballot a measure asking for $108M for a bond for a new library to be 116,000 Sq. Ft., = $931/Sq.Ft.  It was to be expandable to 143,000 sq. ft.  There was no opposing argument. While it received 59% of the vote, it failed to garner the 2/3 majority required by proposition 13 for tax issues.  The existing library (60,000 sq. ft.) was to be torn down and replaced with an entirely new one since Anderson Brule Architects (ABA) claimed it was just as costly to renovate as to build new.

C.f. 2007 ballot proposal for new library:  http://www.smartvoter.org/2007/11/06/ca/scl/meas/B/
Sunnyvale's library web site about the library with links to ABA's analysis:
 http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/Departments/SunnyvalePublicLibrary/AbouttheLibrary/LibraryHistory.aspx

The existing assessment for the proposed Lakewood Branch Library are for also nearly $1,000/Sq.Ft.

That same firm, ABA, is now doing the "needs" assessment for a remodeling of the Civic Center including the library, city hall, and police building.  We can expect ABA to repeat a similar cost estimate for the new buildings and a similar claim that building new is just as costly as remodeling for their 2015 "needs" assessment.

There are many, many problems with the ABA report and analysis linked to above.  Limiting ourselves to two:

1.  What are the costs of renovation vs a new building?

2.  What are sizes of comparable libraries?

Starting with Renovate vs New:  From the "Library Journal" Nov. 24, 2014 we have:

Figure 1 - Click to enlarge

Src: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/11/buildings/year-in-architecture-2014-six-year-cost-summary/

That is six (fiscal) years and $4.5 Billion (!) worth of data.

Putting this in graphical form gives us:

Figure 2 - Click to Enlarge

This chart has a lot of info so let's take it one at a time.  The Red bars show the avg cost per square foot of new library construction that fiscal year, and the Blue bars show the cost of Additions, Renovations, and Remodeling (ARR).  It is quite obvious building new is much more expensive than ARR.  In fact, on average over the 6 years surveyed, the cost of ARRs is just barely over half (55%) of the cost of building new ranging from a high of 67% in 2009 (blue bar of %-age data) to a low of 44% in 2010 and 2012.  The data (figure 1) from the Library Journal has a lot of data points for analysis so this is not some statistical fluke of cherry-picked data:

Figure 3 - Click to enlarge

So whence comes this assertion that building new is no more costly than renovation and additions?  Could it be that ABA wanted the business of building a new building rather than renovating and thus lied to those ends?  Another question is whence comes this cost of roughly $1,000/sq. ft. for a new building?  All the data we have shows around $500/square foot, including equipment and site costs.  Who is trying to charge Sunnyvale two times (!) the normal cost of a new building?  We can only speculate because they provide no sources for their claims, none whatever - not in 2007 and not since as of this writing.

We have more data related specifically to California from the CA Library Bond Act of 2000 data spreadsheet available at: http://www.library.ca.gov/grants/lba2000/ in the link circled below:

Figure 4 - click to enlarge

Plotting the data in the spreadsheet we get:

Figure 5 - click to enlarge

California is a little more expensive than the nation as a whole, but less than by 20% and that average is distorted because some projects had unusually expensive site charges, like requiring toxic waste cleanup.  Still way under the $1,000/sq.ft. Sunnyvale asked its voters to approve.  Maybe Northern CA is more expensive than the average in CA?  Easy to answer, looking at data from the above data set but only sites in Northern CA we get the following:

Figure 6 - click to enlarge

So Northern CA is only about 6% more expensive than all of CA - well within statistical variation.  The San Mateo Library (green) is a little above average because they put in underground parking.  The red bars show what Sunnyvale was asking Sunnyvale voters to approve on a $/SqFt basis.

The second question we asked are what are sizes of comparable libraries.  This is also easy to answer.  Looking at data from the US Government's "Institute of Museum and Library Services" (at http://www.imls.gov/research/public_libraries_in_the_us_fy_2012_tables.aspx )we find that sorted by population ranges we have:

Figure 7 - click to enlarge

This shows many things.  One is that as the population of the library service area increases the square feet per person decreases.  This is intuitively obvious.  If you set up a library even for a tiny community, you need a basic reference set, a table or two to set up some computers and to work at, a librarian desk, and a rest room plus some basic books on the shelves.  This base size will give a square foot per person which is quite large if you have a small population.  This base is not going to change much as you add population. The library size in square feet will increase primarily in the circulation book area.  So as population increases, the size of a library will increase but much more slowly than the population, not proportionally.  Same as apartments - a two bedroom apartment isn't twice as large as a one bedroom.

The same set of data used in the chart above for sq. ft. per person  shows (table below) that only 10% of library systems for populations the size of Sunnyvale have a single branch and of those that do, the average size of that library is under 53,000 sq. ft. compared to Sunnyvale's 60,000 sq. ft. main library.  For those 36 library systems, Sunnyvale is within 2% of the average size in terms of square feet per person.  Naturally, some libraries will be bigger than average, and some smaller, but on average, Sunnyvale is average. (data from http://www.imls.gov/assets/1/AssetManager/FY2012%20PLS_Tables_32_thru_35.pdf )

Out of the 7,000 libraries in the IMLS's data set, 364 library systems are in Sunnyvale's population range (100,000 to 250,000) and of those only 36 (about 10%) have a single main library like Sunnyvale.   The other 90% of systems serving that population range have branch libraries as seen in the next table.  

If you look at cities that have greater square feet per person, they almost invariably achieve this by adding branch libraries.  If you look at the same IMLS PDF tables mentioned above, page 90, table 33A we see that for cities the size of Sunnyvale, the majority have branch libraries while the central library is 56,164 sq. ft. on average, just a shade under the size of Sunnyvale's 60,000 sq. ft. library.

So the key way to increase square feet per person (if that is your main criteria) is via branch libraries - which, not incidentally, increases access by enabling those without ready access to transportation to just walk to their library.

This data above is in table on the web site for the US Government's Institute of Museums and Library Services on their research web page:
http://www.imls.gov/research/public_libraries_in_the_us_fy_2012_tables.aspx
Click on the link to the PDF for tables 32 through 35, page 87, table 32A:
http://www.imls.gov/assets/1/AssetManager/FY2012%20PLS_Tables_32_thru_35.pdf

I have covered library costs and square feet per person extensively.  See also:
http://cspgs.blogspot.com/2015/04/libraries-better-libraries-with-better.html

Here is a library in Oregon exactly the same size as Sunnyvale's (60,000 sq.ft.) which was doubled in size to 120,000 square feet and given an entirely new exterior facade for $23 Million:
http://cspgs.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-model-for-library-expansion.html

Part of the reason the Sunnyvale 2007 library expansion bond issue failed was that voters had no idea what they would be getting for their $108M - no drawings, floor plans - nothing.  This is not the norm.  The following two posts show some library ventures that illustrated for residents what they would be getting for their money:
http://cspgs.blogspot.com/2014/02/other-areas-library-expansion-plans.html
http://cspgs.blogspot.com/2014/02/other-areas-library-expansion-plans_17.html

I cover some of the same ground about library costs with actual photos of libraries that have been built in CA for the roughly $500/sq.ft.  They are very attractive libraries and you should give them a look:
http://cspgs.blogspot.com/2014/02/library-costs-in-california.html

Here I compare Sunnyvale's public library statistics to the state average and many other local districts:
http://calpensionsbrief.blogspot.com/2012/07/sunnyvale-libraries.html