Big changes announced for 3 St. Paul libraries, including rebuild of Hamline-Midway branch

Frederick Melo, Pioneer Press
·5 min read

Following more than a year of outreach and sometimes pitched debate, the St. Paul Public Library system has unveiled plans for a major renovation of the Hayden Heights Library on White Bear Avenue, a new addition adjoining the Riverview Library on the West Side and a complete rebuild of the Hamline-Midway Library.

The three locations are “well loved, well used and well worn,” said Library Director Catherine Penkert in an interview, and “have not seen significant investment in decades, in more than 30 years, or in the case of Hayden Heights in more than 40 years.”

All 13 library locations can expect some fresh investment in technology and children’s play areas, she said.

The goal for Hayden Heights will be to ring the exterior walls with greenery and glassy new windows, including an all-glass southwest corner intended to reveal the inner-workings of the single-story 1970s structure to passersby on White Bear Avenue. Penkert said surveys showed that residents were interested in seeing the library become more of a “resilience center,” with programming such as a visiting nurse, workforce resources and other community offerings.

At Riverview, which is a Carnegie library built in 1916, a new side addition will add a community room and a single entrance for the able-bodied and the disabled, allowing the existing front stairway to be converted into an outdoor reading patio. The aesthetics of that side addition have yet to be determined, Penkert said, and will require more community conversation. The existing green on the front and side lawn would gain park-like features allowing for outdoor story times and other programs.

HAMLINE-MIDWAY

The deepest and most hotly-debated changes will take place at the Hamline-Midway location on Minnehaha Avenue, where longtime fans of the building’s 1930s-era red-brick façade and tall, arched entryway have called for a historically-sensitive renovation.

Instead, the library will be demolished and rebuilt completely, with brick from the facade incorporated into a new structure on the same site spanning 30 percent more square footage.

That project is likely to go out to construction bid this year, with a groundbreaking in 2023.

The existing Hamline-Midway building effectively stacks a one-level library over basement bathrooms and meeting space in a vertical configuration. Keon Blasingame, a principal with LSE Architects of Minneapolis, noted disability access at the existing structure is limited to a basement side door that connects to a narrow hallway.

“We’ve stepped the building back,” said Blasingame, whose 18-year-old son uses a wheelchair. “All the key functions are on one level, so everything is accessible.”

The new, more efficient horizontal layout is expected to improve sight lines and increase readily-accessible building space by 50 percent, with new staff areas, flexible-use classrooms and meeting space, as well as greater access to modern technology.

‘ACCESSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY’

Emphasizing goals of “accessibility and sustainability,” Penkert said the intention was to erect “a new building that incorporates in some very clear and concrete ways connections to the building of old” and “very much honors the history of the library in that neighborhood. (But) what we use libraries for today were not imagined in 1930.”

As recently as May 14, fans of the Hamline-Midway location organized under the title “Renovate 1558” had staged a rally to preserve it from demolition. Those efforts had won the support of Historic St. Paul, a preservation agency.

“Historic preservation is the very definition of sustainability — a smart, efficient way to reuse a community’s resources and keep its character at the same time,” said the nonprofit, in a recent statement forwarded by executive director Carol Carey.

St. Paul City Council Member Mitra Jalali issued a statement Thursday indicating her support for a new “permanent library that is here to stay,” noting “an exhaustive and community-informed process that has spanned most of my time as a councilwoman.”

“A full library rebuild doesn’t just honor the past,” Jalali wrote. “It changes the very conditions of disinvestment that created its inequities.”

Each of the designs is still subject to fine-tuning when it comes to details such as simple aesthetics and interior layout, but library officials made clear this week that the three general concepts drawn up by LSE Architects of Minneapolis were final.

DISPARITIES IN TECHNOLOGY

A bruising pandemic has laid bare disparities in technology access among community members of different incomes and ethnic groups, while further elevating the role of remote work, remote schooling and Internet-based education.

Offering computers, classrooms and collaborative work spaces is no longer optional, officials said.

Kim Horton, a spokesperson for the Friends of St. Paul Public Library, forwarded a statement thanking the library system “for leading a remarkable community engagement process across our city and engaging hundreds of residents in imagining libraries that will serve us all for decades to come. We unequivocally support St. Paul Public Library’s proposed vision for systemwide investments that will make all our libraries more welcoming, more accessible, and more prepared to meet whatever challenge comes next.”

The St. Paul Public Library system will host virtual office hours for each library so community members can get more information. The discussions will take place from 4 to 5 p.m. on June 1 for the Hayden Heights location, from 4 to 5 p.m. June 2 for the Hamline-Midway location and from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. for the Riverview location. Links will be posted at sppl.org.

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