Harold Washington Library (Chicago)

Last week, I had the chance to visit family in Chicago for the Thanksgiving holiday. Serving the third largest city in the United States, the Chicago Public Library system is one of the largest public collections in the country at over 5.7 volumes. It consists of the Harold Washington Library Center and 79 other branches spread throughout the city. I decided to visit Harold Washington, the central library of the system located in the south loop in downtown Chicago.

In 1987, Chicago Mayor Harold Washington approved funding of a new central library project. Construction began a year later, and the library opened its doors to the public in 1991. Named after the first African-American mayor of the city, Harold Washington Library is has 10 floors, and even after several hours I was only able to see a small section of the building.

It was interesting seeing how the climate of Chicago compared to that of San Diego has shaped the architecture of each library's architecture. The Harold Washington library is much more self-contained; it's all in one big rectangular building that takes up an entire city block, and it's well insulated but doesn't have much natural light throughout the building. Conversely, the Central Library in San Diego has a much more open feel, with different balconies and terraces and several buildings combined into one large library complex.

What holds constant, however, is that both these libraries are some of the largest public libraries in the country, fairly new, extremely nice, and play an fundamental role in their communities.

Rancho Bernardo

Of the five-ish months that I've been working on this project, I'd yet to visit a library in North County. I figured I'd remedy that imbalance by making the trip up to the Rancho Bernardo branch library, the farthest north of any library in the system, and the longest distance from the Central Library downtown (around 25 miles as the car drives). Such is the nature of Rancho Bernardo-- it's large, sprawling, upscale, but somewhat geographically isolated, the northern-most community with San Diego's city limits.

This isolation was intended; Rancho Bernardo began to take shape in the 1960s as a planned community. The community largely white collar and upper middle class, inhabited by families. A lot of investment in made in Rancho Bernardo's public facilities, and the library branch is no exception.

Stacks

Study Spaces

Outside of the Central Library, this branch has been my favorite one to visit so far. For one thing, it's a pleasure to just look at and be in. The earthy tones of the library complement the geography of the area well, and the walls of windows and tall ceilings give the building a bright yet relaxed feel. Also, despite the library's size and amount of patrons (it's one of the busiest in the system), it's very quiet, at least on a Saturday morning when I visited. It has a lot of individual cubicles and work tables, and as large a collection of books, magazines, CDs, and other media as any branch in the system. The library also has a second floor with several meeting rooms, making it one of the most popular locations for SDPL meetings and events.

North County is home to a majority of San Diego's tech and pharmaceutical companies, and the library kind of gave me the feel of an upscale office building or research institute. A lot of this feel can be attributed to its sheer size; at almost 23,000 sq ft, it's one of the largest branches in the system. It's also one of the newest, built in 1996. Overall, I highly recommend visiting the branch, even if it is a bit out of the way. 

Seating Area leading to Courtyard

View from 2nd Floor

San Carlos

The San Carlos branch library sits at around 8,000 sq. ft and was built in the mid 1970s.

Entrance

The branch is actually the eastern-most library in the SDPL system (with the exception of the new Skyline Hills branch, set to open this month), and the geographical location of San Carlos reflects its terrain. The neighborhood is home to the Lake Murray reservoir, one of the most popular destinations in the county for fishing, kayaking, birdwatching, running, cycling, and other recreation. The library is also located less than a third of a mile from the trail head of Cowles Mountain. The summit of Cowles, at an elevation of 1,593 feet, is the highest point in the city of San Diego.

Stacks

The library has the standard architecture and layout of one of the older branches. It's self-contained in one large room, with seating and computers in the center and the children's' area, stacks, and the circulation desk on the periphery.

Announcement: New Skyline Hills Branch Opening

The City of San Diego has announced on its website that the new Skyline Hills branch library will be celebrating its grand opening on Friday, October 14th. The library will be hosting a community celebration of the opening on noon of that day, and tours of the new building will be offered.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer, SDPL Director Misty Jones, and other San Diego officials broke ground on the new library almost exactly a year ago:

 The library is the first new branch built in San Diego since 2009.

Tierrasanta

The Tierrasanta Branch library is located in the Tierrasanta neighborhood, a residential suburb of around 30,000 residents. Signs in the area refer to the neighborhood as "an island in the hills," an description that's not inaccurate; the area is secluded, surrounded by canyons on all sides except the west.

Front of the Library

The library is similar to many of the small branches in the SDPL system. It's one main room with the staff desk near the entrance, the computers and main seating areas in the center, a children's section on the side, and the stacks in the back of the library.

Stacks

The library reminds me a lot of the neighborhood itself-- small, quiet, secluded, and has kind of an Earthy feel. Tierrasanta overall has kind of a small town, Middle America feel, something a lot of neighborhoods in San Diego don’t really have. It's middle class, there’s no effects of tourism, it’s somewhat isolated like I said, it has one library, one community center, one rec center, one library, one high school, things like that. Something that I've learned over the course of this blog is that every branch, even if only subtly, really reflects the area that it's set in. The Tierrasanta branch is no exception.

Stacks

Serra Mesa- Kearny Mesa

One of the newest and nicest libraries in all of San Diego, the Serra Mesa-Kearny Mesa branch opened in late 2006. The library has a collection of over 50,000 items, including books and other media, and it holds a computer lab of 40 computers available for public use. The 16,000 sq ft branch, now almost ten years old, is more than three times the size of the old library Serra Mesa branch that it replaced.

Entrance

The library also houses an office for the the San Diego Workforce Partnership's Metro Career Center. The center offers numerous resources both online and in-person for job searching, such as job boards and job search workshops.

Stacks

The library is located on Aero Drive, a major east-west road that essentially extends between the 163 and 15 freeways. The road also essentially serves as the border between Kearny Mesa to the north and Serra Mesa to the south. Kearny Mesa is primarily a commercial area, home to many retail centers, office parks, government agencies, and the Montgomery Field airport. Serra Mesa, to the south of Aero Drive, is much more residential, home to around 24,000 San Diegans. Check out the aerial photo below and notice the airport to the north, homes to the south, and the library (circled in red).

Aero Drive

Mission Valley

The Mission Valley library is one of the newer and larger branches in the system, built in 2002 and sitting at around 20,000 sq. ft. Due to its central location in Mission Valley, its proximity to a trolley stop and major retail stores, its ample amount of space, and its large collection of books, computers, and other resources, this library is probably the busiest branch in the SDPL system that I have visited so far, not including the Central Library.

View from the Stairs to the 2nd Floor

I visited on a Tuesday, and I can only imagine how busy the library is on weekends. Nevertheless, the size of the library and the many different rooms and patios extending off of the main room provide ample quiet and secluded spaces. The architectural structure of the building is similar to that of the City Heights branch in that the library consists of one large room with a tall ceiling and a terrace at the back of the library that overlooks the main floor.

View from the 2nd Floor Balcony

The second floor also has a nice covered outdoor seating area.

Outside Seating on the 2nd Floor

Mission Valley is an interesting part of the city. It's certainly not what would be considered a traditional "neighborhood," although there are an increasing amount of apartment complexes and condos being built in the area. Yet, it's an area where people from all over the county congregate-- it's the location of Qualcomm Stadium, where the Chargers and SDSU Aztecs football team play their home games, it houses two of the biggest malls in the city, Mission Valley and Fashion Valley, and it geographically sits at the heart of the city boundaries. It is easy to see, then, why the SDPL system invested in building a large library in this area.

Stacks