Library board considers options for new building

The new Cedar Rapids Public Library will include more public meeting rooms, a vastly expanded children's area and more computers.

Two key questions - where it will be and what it will look like - remain unanswered, but the library board discussed the basic outline of its vision for a new library at a Thursday meeting.

The 104,000-square-foot building should reflect the board's emphasis on function, efficiency, service and security. The board has set aside $5.5 million in case it needs to build a parking ramp or buy land for a new parking lot next to the library.

“It's clearly been what patrons have told us we need to have,” Board President Susan Corrigan said.

The Cedar Rapids City Council will decide - likely some time this fall - where to build a new library and, eventually, what to do with the old building.

Council member Justin Shields said he's not opposed to putting it somewhere other than downtown, but the council as a whole is pushing for a downtown library, or one near downtown.

“That seems to be the consensus,” he said.

OPN Architects will discuss library designs with the library board at a noon brown bag lunch Aug. 27 at the Bridge Library in Westdale Mall.