Library

South branch library demolition opposed

July 28, 2010 11:46 am by Frances Dinkelspiel

Historic photo of reading room of South Branch libray

The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association is opposing the city’s plan to tear down and rebuild the South Berkeley Branch and Tool Lending Library.

BAHA sent a letter to the planning department on July 16 protesting the proposed demolition because the existing building on Russell Street, designed by architect John Hans Ostwald in 1961, is an “architecturally significant building and a very fine example of Mid-Century Modern architecture.”

BAHA would like the city to either adapt the new design to save parts of the building or build a new branch library on another site.

“It’s a gem,’ said Anthony Bruce, BAHA executive director. “It’s a small building and it really shows some of he design esthetics of that period —the use of wood in the interior and the indoor-outdoor aspects of it “

The city is preparing an Environmental Impact Report on the proposed demolition, and is asking the public for comments by August 16.

Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Committee has already reviewed the design for a new building and has not expressed concern about the demolition. However, the committee will review the matter again after the city completes the EIR in the fall.

As part of the planning process for the branch library renovation program, library officials and the architect, Field Paoli, met numerous times with a subcommittee of the Landmarks Preservation Committee, according to Donna Corbeil, the director of the library.

The architects drew up various designs, including some that would have preserved the main reading room, which was built in 1961. (The library has been renovated twice since it was completed, once in 1974 to add a meeting room, and again in 1991 to add the tool lendng library.)

But those designs didn’t work well, according to a report prepared by the Planning and Development Department. In order to reuse the main reading room, the architects would have had to add a second story to the library, which would have required more staff.  Measure FF, which is funding the renovation of the branch libraries, expressly prohibits any of the funds from being used for new programming.

In addition, the eaves jutting out of the room are only 9 feet high and working those into a new design created a cramped and claustrophobic building, said Corbeil.

“It started to feel for everyone that it wouldn’t be a respectful interpretation of the current building by taking one piece and sticking it behind a new building,” said Corbeil. “It did not come together well from a design or operational perspective.”

“It’s a concrete block building,” she said. “It was a cute design for its time, but it was really built on the cheap. “

BAHA wants to “go on record saying this is an important historic resource,” said Bruce. Ostwald, who died in 1973 at the age of 49, also designed the Bancroft Center and St. John’s Presbyterian Church, according to the BAHA website.

“Berkeley has always sought out the best architects for school and civic buildings,” said Bruce.

BAHA is also opposed to plans to tear down and rebuild the library’s west branch.

If the new design is approved, the South Berkeley Branch and Tool Lending Library will be torn down in 2012 and will reopen a year later. The building will go from 5,400 square feet to 8,656 square feet. There won’t be any expansion of services, but there will be more computers and seating, the library will comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the structure will be seismically sound.

While Corbeil is in favor of building a new structure on the site, she said the city wants to respect its citizens,

“This is the community’s library,” she said. “We are here to give our opinion, but it depends on what the community wants.”

Renderings of new South Berkeley Branch Library

13 Comments

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  • jjohannson

    I have rose bushes that are older than this building, seismically sound, and ADA compliant.

    Let’s build a new one. More seating means more people at the library, an indisputable good.

  • Roxanne

    Watch out – it looks like BAHA is ready to strike again.
    1993 or thereabouts:
    The old Thousand Oaks School…one of the most depressing, inhospitable buildings in the district, all but uninhabitable on the top floor, a seismic disaster. Plans to demolish and rebuild were underway when…
    Enter BAHA which got the old hag landmarked. And guess what – after that step, there is no legal way to get a building UN-landmarked.
    One million smackers in EIRs and redesigns later, the old one was finally torn down anyway (which cost a fortune due to the fact that the old building was loaded with ASBESTOS. Wouldn’t that have been a nice gift to the young students?) and finally the new school opened. But don’t forget – BAHA cost BUSD, and therefore us taxpayers, about a million dollars extra, just because they managed to landmark that old thing.
    So watch out BPL. Because BAHA doesn’t care what it costs to mess up a new building process, and all those donations to our library should be used for better things than endless EIRs, in order to save an ugly and fairly crummy building.
    BAHA might be good for some things but they know no bounds.
    BAHA costs us plenty because in the end, they force us to needlessly spend tax dollars to fight their tunnel vision.
    So whatever you do Berkeley, do NOT let them landmark that awful old library.
    Mid-Century Modern indeed. Mid-Century Modern my a–.

  • RR

    The real question is… Where will I get tools during the while the new Tool Lending Library is being built? I love the TLL. It has saved me thousands of dollars by preventing me from buying expensive tools and allowing me to take on complicated projects myself.

  • Max

    A tiny, unreinforced cinderblock building, filled with children, seniors, and book browsers and only a mile away from the Hayward Fault. BAHA, what planet are you on? Do you even use libraries? Southwest Berkeley deserves a bigger, more spacious, safe, and welcoming library! Sheesh, people.

  • http://www.preservenet.com Charles Siegel

    Historic preservation looked very appealing when Victorians were being preserved, but it looks much less appealing now that mid-century modern buildings have become old enough to attract the attention of preservationists.

    It is a tacky, sterile, little building in a discredited architectural style. Let’s get rid of it.

  • Phil Morton

    Some people in this town seem to want nothing to be changed. For all its much vaunted progressive reputation, this is one conservative place. This building may be representative of that style, but there is not much aesthetic merit to the structure at the South Berkeley Library. Next up: let’s landmark the port-a-potties at Civic Center Park as an example of “late-century modernism.”

  • 12many

    Well, it looks like they’re building one of the bland, “modern” style building which we won’t care about tearing down and replacing on just aesthetic grounds in the near future. Why o’ why do public building have to be ugly?

  • Roxanne

    Next up: let’s landmark the port-a-potties at Civic Center Park as an example of “late-century modernism.”

    Well, some of them have been there long enough.

  • Roxanne

    “BAHA is also opposed to plans to tear down and rebuild the library’s west branch.” .
    I jut noticed this sentence. You have got to be kidding. It is even uglier and tackier than the south branch.

  • carole

    I’ve lived and worked in Berkeley for 30 years, first as a librarian at the Central branch, and then as a webmaster of lii.org and instructor for the California State Library. I’m now retired and have time to pay a bit more attention to civic life.

    I am a member of BAHA and strongly disagree with the stance taken on its behalf toward the construction plans for South and West branches. I like architecture and support a lot of what BAHA has done in the past (not all of it by a long shot) but this time they’ve taken a wrong tack. How much more is it going to cost to do the 2 buildings because of their fight? I want the money I voted to tax myself for to go to the library, not specious attacks on the planning process. Information on the various meetings necessary has been posted. Every time I go to the library’s website or into the buildings — there is info there on this very public planning process.

    As far as South’s architectural heritage goes, my favorite description came from a 19-year-old born and raised in Berkeley, “South branch – that’s the one that looks like someone dumped a bunch of boxes and called it a library. Ugly.”

  • Library Patron

    I agree with Carol. In this particular instance, those few in the BAHA membership are going in the wrong direction. I doubt that most of the BAHA membership agree with this position, as it relates to South and West. We, and they, need to move on, to let go, and allow the new libraries to be built. Can those few in BAHA who are organizing this backwards move take the time to question their ethics and wisdom and to expand their vision into the next generation?

  • Jerry

    It’s about time that everyone in Berkeley have access to a state of the art library. The money from measure FF will provide such facilities to all the neighborhood branches. The current South Branch is incredibly overcrowded, unsafe, unsightly, and inefficient. The new branch will be a welcome addition to the community as regards both usefulness and aesthetics. BAHA should get their priorities straight. The current building is an ugly mess which will not be missed.

  • Friend of Libraries

    If anyone is still reading these posts in late November, the city council will
    consider these demolitions and the rebuilding of the north and claremont branches on December 7. Let them know your thoughts on BAHA’s opposition by writing to the council at
    clerk@ci.berkeley.ca.us.

    By the way, Judith Epstein who lives in the Claremont area is suing the city to prevent the demolition and rebuilding of the West and South branches. It’s a travesty really. She doesn’t even live near these structures, nor did she attend any of the community planning meetings that developed the plans for south and west.