Tarps cover benches to keep them dust-free in the new Boca Raton Library.
Jon Castro of B&I Contractors checks the ceiling in the young readers area.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
Furniture in a reading area is protected by dropcloths.
‘Books to go’ kiosks will highlight popular titles.
INSET BELOW: An etched glass panel depicts loggerhead turtles and other marine life.
By Ron Hayes
On a sparkling blue afternoon last month, the city’s manager of library services stood beneath the towering ceiling of Boca Raton’s newest library, bathed in pristine light.
Tom Sloan arrived here 17 months ago from Chicago, the former executive director of DuPage County’s venerable libraries. Now he was about to oversee the opening of a brand-new, $9.5 million downtown library.
He was proud. He was excited. He was impatient.
On May 18, library lovers had gathered on the east lawn of the old library at Northwest Second Street and Boca Raton Boulevard to market the building’s 50th anniversary. They listened to music, snacked on cookies, sipped lemonade — and signed a goodbye card to the library they would leave behind.
Now Sloan was eagerly looking to the future.
“Once the certificate of occupancy is issued,” he said, “we have a tentative schedule for the move.”
Two days after that certificate arrives, the current downtown library at Northwest Second Street and Boca Raton Boulevard will close.
Seventeen days after that, a community “Book Brigade” will walk the last 100 books two blocks north to the new library on the corner of Northwest Fourth Street.
And two days after that, a ribbon will be cut, the doors will open, and residents will meet the sort of 21st-century library where books are still the heart, but not the whole, of its mission.
“This reminds me of those European libraries that elevate and inspire you with their architecture,” Sloan said. “Our Spanish River library is more Mizner-style, with darker woods, but we wanted this to be very modern, and very South Florida, with all light woods and colors.”
At 42,000 square feet, the new building is twice the size of its predecessor, dominated by a vast central promenade stretching in a northwesterly line to draw the natural light. Lining the sides of the arched ceiling, 50 clerestory windows pour sunlight over three mammoth chandeliers to bathe the white walls and blond woods.
“The notion of libraries being a civic space is coming forward again,” Sloan said. “We hope this will be a great civic space for the community.”
Right now, however, it’s only a striking blend of light and space. The shelves have not arrived yet, the furniture is not in place, no books, no magazines. But as Sloan wanders the carpeted floors, describing what’s to come, his enthusiasm fills the rooms.
The circular information desk stands at the promenade’s midway point, beneath the central chandelier.
“We put it there as a symbol that information is still the key to our mission, and staff assistance is extremely important,” he explained. “We answer over 600,000 questions a year.”
As you enter the library from the parking lot — with space for 172 cars — the new books, bestsellers and DVDs are displayed on your left, covers out, like a bookstore.
On your right is a real bookstore.
The Friends of the Library have donated $250,000 to underwrite an additional 1,250 square feet, enlarging its used bookstore to 1,600 square feet from the proposed 1,200, with the remainder providing for a bigger multipurpose room. “The Friends donate between $40,000 and $50,000 a year,” Sloan said, “primarily based on their used-book sales.”
More space, more used books, more donations.
The circulation desk and self-service checkout computers are nearby, with the bookshelves filling a large, window-lined space to the right of the information desk.
At the far end of the promenade, a cyber cafe of computers faces the adult reading area, with comfortable chairs and magazines nearby.
“We designed it to be like a living room,” Sloan said.
On the left, the Youth Service Center announces itself with a large glass wall etched with fish and loggerhead turtles, a Gumbo Limbo Nature Center motif to complement the tropical photography throughout.
If you can judge how much a community values its younger citizens by the space they’re given in the library, Boca Raton puts young people first. Beyond those loggerheads, a large children’s room awaits, plus a separate teen room, and a learning and gaming center with computers for homework, and eight video game stations for after the homework’s done.
In the community meeting room, with seating for 155, a kitchen and a patio, Sloan happened on Walter Wharton, the project superintendent for Kaufman Lynn Construction, which built the library.
The one color that permeates the whole building, Wharton emphasized, is green.
“It’s going to be green-certified,” he said, “and in a nutshell, that means safer. Nontoxic, cleaner, with lower maintenance and lower environmental impact. We’ve built it with recycled paper, concrete, metals and glass wherever possible, and it was
designed to maximize the natural lighting to minimize electric bills.”
Nearby, the Sidney and Ruth Heimberg Business Meeting Room will be available free to nonprofit community groups, or for rental to businesses.
The new library will have an automated coffee and snack area, and 10 private study and tutoring rooms, first come, first served.
Can patrons bring their coffee into the book and seating areas?
“Oh, of course,” he murmured, as if it were a silly question.
“And this,” Sloan said, “is the Discovery Center. It’s a room where we can bring in art exhibits or even have concerts and performing artists. For our opening, we’ll have an exhibit from the Boca Raton Museum of Art. This room is a blank slate, really.”
And then he was back in the promenade, standing in the center of an empty building as workmen moved here and there, adding the finishing touches to a building for which that simple word “library” hardly seems sufficient.
“Libraries are really an act of faith that says, ‘This is something for everyone in our community,’ ” Sloan said. “From all walks of life. It’s a way of bringing people who tend to be increasingly isolated by technology back into a public space.
“Even if you’re on one of the computers here, you’re in a public space.”
The Boca Raton city libraries welcome anyone who wants to visit and read books or magazines, and most special events and lectures are open to the public. Free circulation privileges, however, are limited to city residents only. Nonresidents requesting a library card are charged a fee of $150 a year for individuals or $250 per family. Call 393-7852.
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