From conference room seating to the reading chairs in the children’s room, everything at the new Belmont Public Library has been tried and tested with durability and ease of future maintenance in mind.
“We sat in so many chairs, looked at so many different wall coverings and treatments. . . .We literally jumped on chairs,” said Kathy Keohane, chair of the Board of Library Trustees. “The attention to detail in designing this building to serve everybody in the community has just been amazing.”
On Saturday, Jan. 17, at 9 a.m. and Sunday, Jan. 18, at 1 p.m., Belmont residents are invited to see the fruits of that effort at the grand opening of the library on Concord Avenue. A ribbon cutting is scheduled for Jan. 17 at 9:30 a.m.
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“It’s designed for the future,” Keohane said.
The much-anticipated opening of the new library comes three years after Belmont voters approved a debt exclusion of $34.5 million, with additional community donations accounting for nearly $6 million of the $39.5 million project.
“I feel extremely lucky to work for such a thoughtful, engaged, and supportive community. We look forward to welcoming you very soon,” Director Peter Struzziero wrote in an email.
A year after voter approval, the former library building closed on Nov. 22, 2023, and library services were dispersed throughout town. Adult library services are located at the Beech Street Center; children’s services are at the Benton Library on Oakley Road; and some staff and administrative work is conducted at the Chenery School.
The 41,000-square-foot space, representing a nearly 11,000-square-foot increase over the former building (about half of this expansion is attributable to accessibility code requirements), includes an expanded children’s room, a community classroom, and Morrissey Hall—a community room for meetings, performances, workshops, or movie screenings.
Book return and sorting have been automated, streamlining the process for staff, and a number of self-service checkout kiosks have been installed. A vending area is located off the “Library Commons,” the large central space on the first floor where patrons can sit and chat with a friend, play chess, or peruse several movable bookshelves.
In addition to books, CDs and movies, patrons can check out tools, art and craft supplies (including a sewing machine), laptops and calculators, among dozens of other items from its “Library of Things.”
The Belmont Store, meanwhile, will sell used books and display the work of local artists for sale.
Bits of the old building—particularly the granite from the front steps and curbing—have been salvaged and repurposed for inclusion in the property’s landscaping. The veterans’ stone tablets and bronze relief plaques for the Underwood family will also be featured in the new library, as will the stained-glass windows, which will be incorporated into the children’s room.
The library is a place for people of all ages, Keohane said, and as a result, it needed to be built with that in mind.
“There was a lot of community engagement,” said Noel Murphy, senior associate at Oudens Ello Architecture. “Some of the social spaces are things you see more and more of at libraries.”
Whereas in some communities the concept that libraries aren’t just for books is a harder sell, that wasn’t necessarily the case in Belmont, according to Murphy.
“That was easy here,” he said.
Keohane commended Murphy and his team at Oudens Ello for seeing so much potential in the space, not just with respect to the building, but the whole property.
