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….
The past two weekends saw us at opposite ends of Riverside. Last weekend, we had the chance to take in the reopened Arlington Branch Library. While there, we took a few photos of the nearby Arlington Village commercial area. This weekend, we spent some time downtown checking in on the refurbishing of the Main Street…
A City Council-appointed task force assigned with revising Riverside’s library-museum expansion plans issued its draft recommendation this week calling for separate expansions for both institutions. The recommendation, which would reverse the city’s earlier combined expansion proposal, comes after several recent public meetings on the issue. Most critics of the original $25 million proposal — part…
After nearly 2 years of construction and renovation, Riverside’s Arlington Branch Library reopened to the public this past week following an 8,000 sq. ft. addition to the 99-year-old building. The new wing nearly triples the size of the current library to 13,000 sq. ft. The new addition mimics the original building’s Greek Revival styling, which…
In the midst of planning an expansion for the downtown branch, news surfaced recently regarding the future of another branch within Riverside’s library system, this time involving the possible relocation of the tiny, but unique, Marcy Branch. Located on Central Avenue just west of the Riverside Plaza, the Marcy Branch opened in 1958 replacing the…
This past few weeks have seen the first meetings for the city’s newly-formed “blue ribbon” task force for the combined downtown library-museum expansion project, which stalled in recent months following public comments questioning the viability of joint-use expansion. Members of the committee, comprised of seasoned Riverside civic leaders, have been given the task of formulating…
There’s been some chatter recently of moving Riverside’s Central Library (a.k.a. Main Library) from its current downtown site on Mission Inn Avenue to a location east of the 91 Freeway. We feel this would be a big mistake. The notion began with a seemingly innocuous letter to the editor that appeared in the June 19th…
