24 August 2023
DULUTH Plans for a new downtown library are coming into clearer focus as the city continues to gather public input on the building’s future.
If the city can garner sufficient state and federal support, it looks like the existing downtown library at 520 W. Superior St. will likely face demolition, with a new multipurpose structure to be rebuilt in its place.
The estimated price tag? A cool $72 million. Although that estimate assumes continued high construction costs, which have begun to moderate slightly since the pandemic, noted Jim Filby Williams, Duluth’s director of parks, city properties and libraries.
Initial plans call for a new 88,000-square-foot building about the same size as the existing library but the facility also would be home to a Workforce Development Center, potentially the Duluth Police Department’s interdisciplinary behavioral health unit and other possible nonprofit tenants.
Filby Williams expects the facility will provide space for services such as health insurance navigation, tax preparation assistance, mental health evaluation and substance abuse assessment.
From the community input we’ve received so far, most of it has been to the effect of immediate heartfelt expressions of dislike for the current building’s brutalist architecture. And, in almost all cases, we’ve seen immediate enthusiasm for the prospect of a new, rather than renovated, building.
But the city must move swiftly if it hopes to put the project in line to obtain state bonding bill funds, with a pre-design and cost estimate due by October.
Elena Foshay, Duluth’s director of workforce development, said she sees “a lot of synergies” to sharing a location with the downtown library.
“Both the library and the Workforce Center serve as digital access points for the public,” she said, predicting that a common location could help boost traffic for both organizations.
“We fully anticipate a new building would supercharge workforce development and library services, that we would see even more usage of those services and in association with that, even more reactivation of downtown Duluth,” Filby Williams said.
Filby Williams said city staff hope to assemble a package of funding that will place little to no additional burden on local taxpayers.
Duluth will seek about half the necessary funding from the state through inclusion in its next bonding bill.
“That will require us to fund the other half of the cost from non-state sources,” Filby Williams said, pointing to about $50 million in federal funds earmarked for multipurpose community centers in Minnesota through the American Rescue Plan Act as one potential resource. Those federal funds are to be put to use before the end of 2026, however.
Filby Williams said the city is seeking clarification on that utilization requirement, as a successful application could push Duluth into an aggressive timeline. It will likely take 18-24 months to construct a new library. So, a 2026 completion deadline likely would necessitate the demolition of the existing facility by early 2024.
While the federal funds are unlikely to cover a full 50% of the project cost, Filby Williams said the Duluth Library Foundation is contemplating a capital fund drive, and the city also could redirect funds currently being used to lease space at 402 W. First St. for the Workforce Center to service debt. He pointed to savings associated with improved efficiencies the city expects to see with a new facility as another potential source of funding that could be brought to bear.
“So, our hope is to stack all of those sources together,” Filby Williams said.
Efforts to come up with a new plan for the downtown library began in earnest by late 2022, and Filby Williams said he feels the project is well positioned to stay on schedule, as deadlines to apply for funding near.
Library Manager Carla Powers said a number of focus groups have been held and patrons have submitted more than 600 surveys detailing their top priorities for a new facility. The library continues to gather input at duluthmn.gov/redesign.
“We have proceeded in a manner that should enable us to submit a strong predesign that reflects the community’s wishes,” Filby Williams said.
But, he added, “At the same time, we want to underscore the relatively limited force of this October submission in regard to the final design of the building.”
While Filby Williams said the city does not intend to substantially deviate from the pre-design it submits, Duluth will still have considerable latitude to adjust the project to conform with the community’s wishes if the state bonding request proves successful.
“Our overarching commitment is to find a way through this project to renew and consolidate deteriorated city infrastructure in a manner that delivers significant broader benefits with funding that places little or minimal burden on local property taxpayers,” Filby Williams said.
“Certainly, the state and federal funding are both enormously important, and I would say that Mayor (Emily) Larson has an especially strong track record of facing a financial challenge, engaging all of our partners both our federal and state delegations, and Gov. (Tim) Walz’s administration to collectively work a problem like this doggedly toward a solution,” he said.
Filby Williams said both the library and the Workforce Center serve the whole region, not just local residents, with a large number of users coming from beyond city limits.
As for the decision to replace the existing library instead of attempting to remodel it, Filby Williams said they’re “inclined to proceed that way for a number of reasons.”
“The building is sufficiently deteriorated that the cost of comprehensive renovation is comparable to the cost of new construction,” he said. “And in terms of functionality, the building in its current form is peculiarly ill-suited to serve as a public library, with its extreme and mystifying profusion of structurally essential pillars and the way in which those pillars severely limit the flexible use of spaces and foreclose sight lines in a way that requires more staffing and is conducive to more safety issues for patrons and employees.”
Filby Williams said public appreciation of the existing library has been rather weak as well.
“From the community input we’ve received so far, most of it has been to the effect of immediate heartfelt expressions of dislike for the current building’s brutalist architecture. And, in almost all cases, we’ve seen immediate enthusiasm for the prospect of a new, rather than renovated, building. And we’re eager to continue to hear from the community about that,” he said.
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