Austin City Council Selects Design Team for the New Central Library

Austin, Texas - This week, the Austin City Council selected a team to design the new Central Library located on the site of the Seaholm Substation plot at 704 W. Cesar Chavez Street. The chosen design team is Lake|Flato Architects and Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott.

In November 2006, voters approved to construct a new $90 million 250,000 square foot new Central library to replace the current 1979 John Henry Faulk Central Library which has 110,000 square feet. The City Council selected Lake|Flato Architects and Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott out of two other teams, Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects and Taniguchi with Holzman Moss and Page Southerland Page / Patkau Architects.

The City of Austin will execute a contract with the selected design team, and once completed, the Austin Public Library, in conjunction with the Library Commission and the Austin Public Library Foundation, will hold a series of public design charrettes to get community input on what citizens of Austin would like to see in their new Central Library.

Below is an estimated timeline for the new Central Library project:

• May 2009 ~ Citizen/Stakeholder input meetings –Co-sponsored by Library Commission and Library Foundation
• June 2009 ~ Design phase begins
• Spring 2011 ~ Design development completed
• Winter 2011 ~ Construction begins
• Fall 2013 ~ Construction complete
• Spring/Summer 2014-Grand Opening

In tandem with the design and building phases, the Austin Public Library Foundation will begin a capital and endowment campaign to raise additional funds for Central Library enhancements, as well as, to match funds from the City of Austin’s sale of the downtown Block 21 (future site of the Austin City Limits studio) to offset operational costs of the new Central Library.

Images: Austin Public Library