Anchorage's Loussac Library has secured $15 million in funding and is moving forward with a face lift.
At an open house Thursday, library staff unveiled a partial redesign of the 28-year-old building and asked members of the public what they thought. As it stands, the plan by RIM Architects calls for elimination of the library's outdoor steps -- prone to icing over in winter -- and the addition of a glass front to a new ground-floor entryway.
For Toni McPherson, library spokeswoman, one of the most exciting improvements is the addition of an indoor book drop. The staff will no longer have to lug in the outdoor bins that can weigh up to 350 pounds when full of books. Instead, people will slide returns into slots at the side of the library. Books and media will hit a conveyor belt and a scanner will automatically check them in.
"Right now, the staff handles the books about six or seven times between getting them out of the book drop and getting them onto the shelves," McPherson said. "This will greatly reduce the number of times they have to have to handle them, increase efficiency and allow staff to do other types of jobs."
Other changes include five new meetings rooms, adding 1,500 square feet to the downstairs lobby and the creation of a fourth-floor conference room. Construction should start in spring 2015 and end by the following fall.
The library staff has waged a funding campaign for the redesign since 2007. Some of their efforts worked, and some did not.
In 2013, library director Mary Jo Torgeson went to Juneau with a group from the nonprofit Anchorage Library Foundation to lobby for an $8 million state grant, but returned without money.
Mayor Dan Sullivan inserted a $2.75 million bond for the renovation on the city election ballot last spring. It was rolled into Proposition 3, which would have provided bonds for a number of capital projects including updates to the Anchorage Golf Course and the Chester Creek Sports Complex, but the measure failed by a razor-thin margin.
This summer, the Legislature appropriated $10 million to the library. Torgeson said they also have about $5 million in previously allocated state money: $1 million for design and $4 million for construction.
While a cost estimate has not been released for the project, Torgeson said the $15 million should cover its price tag. She hopes to have Anchorage residents vote on an $850,000 facilities bond in the next municipal election to help fund the new book drop-off system. And, she said, the Anchorage Library Foundation will soon begin the process of raising funds for the next two phases of the library makeover.
"That planning will be a future project," Torgeson said.
At the Thursday open house, residents trickled in and out. They looked over poster boards depicting phase one and the library's new facade.
Sherri Douglas, the library's assistant director for public services, took notes during a conversation with Barbara Mishler, who expressed concern about the library's accessibility to people who are disabled. She posed questions about the construction material for the design's large front patio, which Douglas said she would check on. The patio would be where a parking access road exists now.
Anne Reilly, 59, said she usually enters the library at the first floor and uses the elevator, avoiding the outdoor staircase that can get icy in the winter. "You really have to grip on," she said. For her, she said, the new entryway won't make a huge impact, though she lauded the library's function as a community hub.
"It's not just books. It's CDs, it's DVDs, it's meeting spots for teenagers," Reilly said. "It's workshops for adults. I use the library all the time."
Monica Sullivan, project designer with RIM Architects, said the design -- now at 35 percent -- should be finished by December and bidding for construction will begin by February.