Library/museum task force produces ‘guiding principles’ for separate expansions

After several months of public meetings, the 22-member Library/Museum task force held its final session this past week, producing what it calls “guiding principles” for the planned expansions of downtown’s Central Library and Riverside Metropolitan Museum. The key recommendation calls for separate expansions of both facilities, with enough space for each to meet their needs.

As part of the recommendation, the panel urged the city to expedite funding and approval of the expansions and also emphasized its desire to see the Chinese Memorial Pavilion remain in its current spot, which we’re glad to see.

The city’s Board of Library Trustees has already endorsed the guidelines with the museum board set to vote on the matter July 8. The guidelines will then go before the City Council for review on August 12.

Recently, two opposing viewpoints concerning the existing library building appeared in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. Below are two excerpts:

There is a disturbing trend in communities to save every building because buildings say something about who we were when they were built.

… But if we count the downtown library among the buildings that are worth keeping, count me out!

… This month’s Preservation magazine focuses on modernism and asks good questions about the value of buildings. For instance, it suggests that a building be saved if it looks good and the community would be less interesting and less attractive without it. Does the library fit this standard? No.

“Downtown library: a boxy monstrosity” (Kathy Allavie)
Riverside Press-Enterprise – June 20, 2008

… The downtown library was a product of its time when it was built in 1965. Just like many of our most treasured buildings, a local architect designed it. Bolton Moise gave Riverside a library in the then-cutting-edge New Formalism style.

Typical of that style are the concrete screens on the facade. Moise took those screens one step further and created them out of stylized doves, a symbol of peace for a library built after World War II.

… The Carnegie Library, for all its beauty, was torn down because the attitude of the time was much like Allavie’s is today – the building was considered old, ugly and not worthy of preservation.

“Don’t hate Riverside Main Library because it isn’t the Carnegie” (Steve Lech)
Riverside Press-Enterprise – June 28, 2008

Though both articles make good points, it should be no surprise that we agree with Steve Lech in that demolishing the current building would be akin to demolishing the original Carnegie back in December 1964. It shouldn’t have been done then — and it shouldn’t be done now.

Related

Riverside Press-Enterprise – Don’t hate Riverside Main Library because it isn’t the Carnegie (June 28, 2008) | Riverside Library/Museum Task Force finalizes guidelines (June 26, 2008) | Trustees endorse task force’s ‘guiding principles’ for library, museum expansions (June 24, 2008) | Downtown library: a boxy monstrosity (June 20, 2008)

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RaincrossSquare.com – Task force favors separate library, museum expansions (June 2008) | Library-museum task force convenes (April 2008) | Library should remain downtown (July 2007)

Sources: Riverside Press-Enterprise (PE-20080624, PE-20080624), RaincrossSquare.com

2025 PAGE UPDATE: Removed outdated links to newspaper articles; added newspaper inserts/citations; added images; corrected demolition of Carnegie to December 1964 (from 1965).