Library Retrofit, Renovation and Expansion

The Palm Springs Public Library Renovation Project Update to City Council Thursday, April 25, 2024

Group 4 Architecture, Research + Planning, Principal, David Schnee presented a project update to City Council tonight at the Thursday, April 25 City Council meeting. A summary of the second round of community input meetings and online survey conducted in March and April 2024 will be discussed and the impact to the design direction for interiors and landscape designs will be shown, based on that community input. The PowerPoint to be shared at the City Council meeting has been uploaded here so you can see our progress.

OVERVIEW

The Palm Springs Public Library, at 300 S. Sunrise Way, opened in 1975. In need of upgrades, the City applied for and was awarded $6.5 million in matching grant funds by the California State Library Grant Program for the Palm Springs Public Library Renovation Project. The grant funds and matching Measure J funding will provide maintenance and infrastructure updates to the aging building. The City has hired Group 4 Architecture + Research, Inc. from South San Francisco, CA. During the next few months, we will work with them on the design phase of this renovation project. The architects and engineers will evaluate our buildings, make design recommendations, and create various designs from which we can choose.

To begin the process, community input was solicited and October was an information-gathering month for the architectural firm. They brought engineers to the Library to look at our systems and they conducted a Community Open House as well as launched a survey. From our side, we sent them statistics and details about our current collection, programs, and services.

On Wednesday, October 25 during lunchtime, the Architects first took the information downtown at the Welwood Murray Memorial Library and received input from 60 people, representing both residents and visitors. Then our Community Open House at the main library happened on a very busy day when we were hosting several events including a children’s Halloween and Día de los Muertos program, open play Mah Jong, teen pumpkin carving, and an author event. The architects set up vision boards and gave participants dots to place on areas they thought were important. Different colored dots notated the difference between children’s input and that from adults. They were able to gather input from 152 people at the Library.

Prior to this, and continuing through November 5, we launched an online survey, in English and Spanish, asking the community to give input on their priorities for a renovated library. Paper surveys were also available at several locations throughout the City if no computer access was available. We received 595 online responses and 13 paper responses. The Architects are analyzing that input, in addition to other factors to create program options and cost estimates to present to the Library Board of Trustees, the Library Foundation and the City Council by January 2024 to decide what can be funded and what is outside the scope of our Infrastructure Grant. The timeline is aggressive with the grant funded work needing to be complete by March 2026 but we anticipate an exciting process. More to come soon as the project evolves!

--- Julie Warren, Library & Public Services manager