Citizens for Sunnyvale Parks & Green Spaces: Nice Libraries for Nice Prices

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

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

Yet more nice libraries built at a reasonable cost per square foot (SF). To save download time, the pictures are smaller but if you click on any of them they will expand quite a bit.

Previous post in this series here:
http://cspgs.blogspot.com/2015/08/nice-libraries-for-nice-prices-3.html
Following post here:
http://cspgs.blogspot.com/2015/09/nice-libraries-for-nice-prices-5.html

Included here:
8. Lawndale Branch (2009) $8M - 17K sq.ft. - LA - $472/Sq.Ft.
9. Tranquility (2012) - Fresno - $538/Sq.Ft.
10. Mark Twain (2007) $10M - 16K sq.ft. - Long Beach - $606/Sq.Ft.

Just for fun:

The City of Sunnyvale has engaged Anderson Brule Architects (ABA) to do the "needs" analysis of the Civic Center including library, city hall, and public safety building. Their 2007 recommendation was for a monster library (on top of the community gardens) nearly triple the current library's size, tearing down the existing library (with all its lovely trees) and building massive underground parking - total cost $108M - approximately $1,000/sq.ft. We are afraid ABA will again come in with an exorbitant cost leading to the unnecessary sale of prime civic land to pay for it.

We present 3 more libraries at around $500/SF-$600/SF - total cost .

8. Lawndale Branch - LA (2009)

$8.2M ($11.2M) / 17,360 Sq.Ft. = $472/SF ($646/SF)

Why the larger cost numbers in parentheses? Because included in the cost is the very high appraised value of the land at almost exactly $3M. Most people would not consider this a real cost if the city already owns the land. The idea is that the city could sell the land instead of using it so that lost opportunity cost has to be accounted for. In costing other libraries, this land value is negligible (at most 10%) and I ignore it in estimating the cost per Sq.Ft.. In this case it is 35% of the 'real' cost. Since the comparison is to the cost estimated for the 2007 library bond which did NOT include the cost of the land (since Sunnyvale already owned the land) I subtracted out the cost of the land here when calculating the cost. Hence, the parentheses to indicate the cost of the library with the accounting of cost of land.

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"[Library Supervisor Burke said] 'I've never seen a library that is more stunning or beautiful than this one,...

"The library's most visible architectural feature is a clerestory above the first floor, with windows that allow light to pour down into the rooms.

"The rooms are largely open, and will be separated into centers for teenagers, children, adults, homework, job skills, technology, study areas and meetings. There will be 38 computers, terminals for visitors to electronically check out books themselves, and lounge areas that will resemble a cafe.

"A public art project on windows facing Burin features art glass with kaleidoscopic designs that recreate historical Lawndale photographs.

"The new structure is more than five times the size of the existing, 3,200-square-foot library that was built in 1955."

Above excerpted from:

http://www.dailybreeze.com/general-news/20081121/lawndale-turns-a-page-with-dedication-of-new-state-of-the-art-library

CA Dept. of Finance Audit:

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Above CA Dept. of Finance audit includes only the 65% paid by the state. The remaining 35% was paid by the County. From:
http://www.dof.ca.gov/osae/audit_reports/documents/BondGCSLCountyofLosAngeles-LawndaleProp14February2010-1.pdf

Architect's web site here:
http://www.gruenassociates.com/arch_lawndale.html

9. Tranquility - Fresno (2012)

$1.87M / 3,484 SF = $538 / SF

Not much to say about this small rural branch library except how nicely detailed all the costs are in the official CA state audit.

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The above audit includes both the 65% CA supplied bond money grant and the 35% paid by the county.

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Above audit from:
http://www.dof.ca.gov/osae/audit_reports/documents/FinalReport-CountyofFresnoTranquillityLibraryGrantAuditweb.pdf

Architectural firm of record is Fresno County Public Works & Planning which employed Loyd Rolle as architect who apparently has no web site.

10. Mark Twain (Long Beach) Library (2007)

$9.8M / 16,155 SF = $606 / SF

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The Long Beach Public Library System has 12 outlets! - 1 main library and 11 branches. This for a city of 462,000 people - almost exactly 3 times the population of Sunnyvale - in 50 sq. miles - roughly 2.5 times the area of Sunnyvale. Sunnyvale would need 4 outlets to be equivalent.

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The Long Beach main library is 135,000 sq. ft., and most of the branches are between roughly 5,000 and 8,000 sq. ft. The Mark Twain branch at 16,000 SF is almost double the next largest branch. Here is a map of the branches with the Mark Twain branch highlighted in yellow: