Skyline Hills

The Skyline Hills Branch, which opened in October of last year, is the newest branch in the system. Like all of the SDPL branches built within the past couple decades, it replaces an older, much smaller branch; the previous Skyline Hills library was built in 1969 and only sized up at around 4,400 square feet, while the new branch is more spacious and obviously in perfect condition. At 15,000 square feet, the branch is a bit smaller than some of the other newer branches, but it layout causes the interior to feel bigger than its size.

The library has a very open feel, with a lot of natural light and spacious reading areas.The building is technically one story, but the ceiling is a little more than two stories high. Many sections of the walls are entirely windows that extend up to the ceiling, and the bookshelves are set perpendicular to these windows to allow light to shine into the building. In fact, the building is essentially lit completely by natural light during the day, which is pretty rare for a building of this size. Because of the ceilings, brightness, and windows, the interior of the northern section branch almost feels like it's outside. Plus, the library also has a pretty large outdoor reading area.

I think that the architecture of the building, along with the earthy tones that serve as the library's color scheme, complement the Skyline Hills and Southeast San Diego areas well. The region has a large population, but its large geographic area yields a relatively low population density compared to pretty much every other neighborhood within San Diego's city limits. In the eastern portion of Southeast San Diego, where the Skyline Hills Branch is located (it's actually the easternmost library not just in Southeast San Diego, but in the entire SDPL system), the hilly terrain, inland microclimate, and amount of undeveloped land give the area a slightly rural feel.

As I discussed in the Logan Heights post, restrictive zoning during the early 20th century yielded segregated neighborhoods in San Diego, leading Southeast San Diego to be home to a majority of the city's non-white residents during that time. Today, the region is still one of the most ethnically diverse in the city. Like many libraries in areas with sizable Latino populations, the Skyline Hills library features a section of materials in Spanish. It also has a section of Filipino materials, a further reflection of the diversity in the area. In fact, according to a 2011 San Diego County estimate, only about 40% of households in Southeast San Diego speak English only as their primary language spoken at home.

Logan Heights

The Logan Heights branch library is a uniquely new building in one of San Diego's historic communities. The present branch opened in 2009, and at 25,000 square feet is a behemoth compared to the original 4,000 square foot Logan Heights branch, opened in 1927 and located around a quarter of a mile from the new branch.

Original Logan Heights Branch Building

Logan Heights is the only branch library located in central San Diego, a region commonly considered to be bound by Balboa Park to the north, the Bay to the West, Southeast San Diego to the east, and National City to the South. Urban and working-class from its beginnings in the early 20th century, the area has one of the highest concentrations of Latino populations in the city, at 89.4% (City of San Diego, 2009). The library certainly serves a reflection of these demographics; there's a large section on the second floor dedicated to materials in Spanish, and most of the signs and directories in the library are written in both languages.

Historically, Logan Heights and Barrio Logan, which is located directly south of Logan Heights, played an important role in the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. Barrio Logan is the home of Chicano Park, a center of Latino protests and cultural renaissance in the 1970s. Chicano Park is only a mile from the Logan Heights library, and in one of its final acts in office, the Obama administration designated Chicano Park a National Historic Landmark.

This branch is the largest that I've visited so far. Additionally, if memory serves, it's the only two-story branch that is truly two stories, in the sense that there's no balcony or terrace that connects the two floors. I suspect the design of distinction between the first and second floors was intentional. The first floor has one of the largest children's sections I've seen in a branch, and the building was probably designed to keep the noise level down on the second floor. It makes sense that the branch would have such a large children's area; there's five different elementary and middle schools located within about a half-mile.