For Immediate Release
October 24, 2005
(Washington, DC) – On October 18, 2005, the District of Columbia Public Library Board of Library Trustees voted to accept the recommendation of the District’s Office of Contracting and Procurement (OCP) that the city terminate the design/build contracts with Hess Construction Company. Hess has been under contract, since April 9, 2004, to rebuild four branch libraries in the Anacostia, Benning, Tenley-Friendship and Shaw neighborhoods. The four branches are part of a 10-year master facility plan developed to rebuild or renovate all neighborhood libraries in the system.
During the regularly scheduled public meeting, members of the Board said the decision was a difficult one. They cited concerns expressed by the community to them, City Council members, and Library administrators that the branches, as designed, would not meet the needs of the communities they were to serve. In addition, market increases and the cost of re-design contributed to OCP’s recommendation to terminate the contracts.
Additionally, Board members felt that the designs were not congruent with the vision being articulated by the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Future of the D.C. Public Library System. The Task Force, which was established by Mayor Anthony A. Williams in late 2004, has been charged with recommending a course of action to the Mayor that implements his vision for transforming the D.C. Public Library into a 21st century state-of-the-art system. The Board said they were deeply concerned that the District would spend $25 to $30 million on four branches that would fall far short of meeting the mark and consequently would be outdated by the time they were opened.
“This was a difficult decision, but we must continue our goal of bringing state-of-the-art library services and branches that meet the community’s needs as quickly as humanly possible,” said John W. Hill, Jr., president of the Board of Library Trustees. “That’s a commitment the Board has made to citizens of the District. As we continue this mission, we will bring library service in storefront locations in these communities to bridge the gap in services until the branches in these communities can be completed.”
Members of the Board emphasized that the four branches will be built and stressed that the Board and the Library will ensure that the building’s design and the library programs will conform to the needs articulated by each community.
The D.C. Public Library has already begun the planning process for opening four “interim” libraries in the Anacostia, Benning, Tenley-Friendship and Shaw communities. Planning began immediately following the allocation of $2.8 million in the “Omnibus Reserve Funds and Fund Balance Allocation Emergency Act of 2005” by the Mayor. The Act was approved by the City Council in July and received Congressional approval in August. These interim branch libraries will remain in operation until the neighborhood libraries are reconstructed.
“The interim libraries we are setting up in storefronts will be a window into the future of libraries,” said Francis J. Buckley, Jr., interim director of the D.C. Public Library. “We want to demonstrate in these interim branches the state-of-the-art library services residents will have available once their new facilities are open.”
The interim storefronts will house high-tech libraries that will host up to three times as many public access computers as were available in the old branches. They will provide wireless computing capability, offer new book collections, limited reference materials and periodicals, and make available a substantially increased number of media such as CDs, DVDs, books on tape, and VHS tapes. The interim libraries will have inviting decor, new furniture, clear signage, and be well-staffed with knowledgeable personnel.
With the help of the District’s Office of Property Management, the Library has been scouting the four affected neighborhoods for ideal spaces to lease and through the Office of Property Management has sent letters of intent to owners of identified storefronts. Criteria for determining potential lease spaces include storefronts within relative proximity to the closed branches, first floor accessibility, street level visibility, and areas of approximately 3,000 to 5,000 square feet.
Many cities throughout the U.S. have successfully used interim storefront libraries in recent years. Washington, D.C. operated libraries in storefronts before building permanent libraries in some communities.
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