Downtown’s Central Library could be renovated or replaced with smaller facility

If Atlanta ends up with a new Central Library, it’ll be five times smaller than the current facility

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Downtown’s massive Central Library could be vacated and sold by Fulton County to raise cash for a much smaller replacement facility. Or the Fulton County Commission could choose to renovate and upgrade the Brutalist block designed in 1970 by famed architect Marcel Breuer.

Either way, the Atlanta-Fulton County Library System will alter the second phase of its $275 million bond package approved by county voters in a 2008 referendum. Phase II calls for the renovation of 23 branch libraries and the replacement of Downtown’s Central Library — patrons and library officials say it is plagued by understaffing, deferred maintenance, and lackluster programming — with a new, albeit smaller, building.

On May 18 the system’s board of trustees suggested to the county commission that it sell the Downtown building to raise cash to build a five-times smaller Central Library elsewhere in the city core. That new location is presumed to cost around $40 million.

On behalf of the board of trustees, Al Collins, head of the county’s library services division, and Gabriel Morley, the library system’s new executive director, lobbed that idea, as well as a proposal to use up to $85 million worth of bonded cash that was once earmarked for the replacement library — the system would also have had to raise private donations — to instead revive Central.

Emphasis on the words “up to.” According to the library’s master plan, the system in 2008 estimated that the cost to renovate the Central Library starting in 2017 would be roughly $40 million.

Fulton still plans to renovate the branch libraries using bond funding. But an earlier plan to build a much larger Central facility, pitched years ago by former Fulton Commissioner Robb Pitts, is now off the table.

Morley claims renovating Central could run the county up to $240 per square foot, totaling around $64 million. More conservative estimates from preservationists put the price tag up to around $140 per square foot — or around $37 million, tops. That’s according to Dean Baker, member of advocacy group Friends of Central Atlanta Library, whose estimate comes from Ponce City Market Developer Matt Bronfman.

“Typically, the cost of library construction is higher than commercial construction,” Morley told Creative Loafing. “We’re confined to following this whole big process. We can’t just go to Walmart for something. We’ve gotta open it up for bids.”

District 2 Commissioner Bob Ellis said the project costs to revamp Central should be capped around $65 million, although he said he’s “not really wild about the ‘either-ors’ of Option 1 or Option 2.”

Over the past four years, Downtown’s 265,000-square-foot, concrete-laden library has seen a dip in patronage. The ceiling drips. There’s mold. The elevators are wonky. The decades-old library has fallen in disrepair.

Still, most of the county commission thinks it would be ill-advised for the library system to venture off on a real-estate escapade when it’s already got a building with plenty of potential.

“They’re just the library board of trustees, not the real estate board of trustees,” said District 5 Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr., who complained the library system’s overseers weren’t explicit enough when explaining how the debate over the Breuer building could help boost patronage and resolve programming issues.

Commissioner Joan Garner, whose district includes the Breuer building, said she’s been watching her inbox fill up with emails from concerned citizens asking to preserve the current Central Library. And Commissioner Liz Hausmann acknowledged the significance of the library and expressed concern over the demolition of buildings. 

Downtown resident and Central Library advocate Kyle Kessler told Creative Loafing that fixing the building’s problems, such as internet and cell service issues — it’s a giant block of concrete, ya know? — should be “a lot quicker, easier, and cheaper than finding the property, getting an architectural team on-board, and designing programs for the building.”

“The shovel’s not ready tomorrow,” he said. “Whereas, if we’re gonna spend maybe $20 million on renovating Central, you could grab a plumber, get an electrician, and other folks to deal with the basic stuff immediately.”

Everyone who came to the meeting to speak during the public comment time, including a few metro Atlanta teachers who send students to Central for schoolwork, requested the county look toward renovation the building before leaving behind the architecturally significant block that’s chockfull of resources.

“A new library would be reduced by 80 percent of its current size, which would also reduce its circulation and paper resources,” said Karcheik Sims-Alvarado, a Georgia State history professor. “Whose stories, whose literary works, and whose history would be permanently removed from this library system?”

County and library officials don’t have much time to mull over the issue. Fulton Chief Finance Officer Sharon Whitmore said the library board should have a solid plan to present for the commission’s approval by June or July, lest the system loses out on the opportunity to issue the bonds before 2017. If that deadline is missed the county could lose some of its “bonding capacity.” 

And sometime before the library board finalizes its pitch, Commission Chairman John Eaves said, the county will schedule a few public hearings for community input.

NOTE: This post has been altered to include figures from the library master plan, which provided a lower renovation estimate.