New Chapter

The director of the McAllen Memorial Library moved his index fingers between tasks four and five.

“We are kind of in this area right here,” said Jose Gamez, pointing to the items marked reviewing and approving the building program for the new library.

Conversations about what McAllen’s newest library will look like are expected to get heavier in the coming months as the city gets closer to task 14 — the design phase — early this spring.

“(This) is actually the most important phase,” he said.

In May, the McAllen City Commission awarded a total of $1.2 million to an architectural partnership between McAllen-based Boultinghouse Simpson Architects and Minnesota-based MS&R. Both firms have experience in library renovations.

The team is responsible for converting a 128,000-square-foot former Wal-Mart store at North 23rd Street and Nolana into a library.

The city purchased the $5 million building in 2006. It sits on 15 acres and has 864 parking spaces.

According to Gamez’s timeline, the grand opening is slated for March 2010.

Once the $14.2 million project opens it will replace the existing 40,000-square-foot library at 601 N. Main St. The original library was built in 1950, then renovated 25 years later. City officials say it can no longer accommodate the city’s growing population and needs.

Officials haven’t made a final determination on what will become of the original library, however, they’re considering turning it into a branch library or a facility that would support and promote the downtown art district, according to Gamez.

But not everyone is a fan of the new location.

The Save Our Library group began in 2005 after city officials announced they were buying the old Wal-Mart. The group, including Stuart Klein, says they liked the library’s contribution to a historic downtown.

“I think it’s a poor location,” he said. “(The current library) is vital to the center of the city. It is the last vestige of importance in the center of the city.”

Klein, who owns S. Klein Galleries near the current main library, said he is worried that he’ll lose business if there is no library in the area. He said there are too many libraries on the north side of town.

“I think that the downtown merchants, the schools in that area need that library,” he said.

Others are looking forward to the move.

“It’s a great idea,” said Carlos Aleman, a 52-year-old resident from Mission who was visiting the library. “I come here as often as I can. McAllen is really big and this (has been) the same library for 20 or 30 years.”

Julio Luna, a 17-year-old who lives in McAllen, said it will be a longer trek for him to visit the library, but it’s worth it.

“It will be great to have a bigger library because this one is cramped.”

Gamez said the new library will have features besides more space — although he’s not entirely sure what they are yet.

The city paid almost $14,000 for city and architectural officials to review libraries in nine cities from Las Vegas to Charlotte, N.C., looking for ideas they can incorporate into the new design.

Gamez said he saw firsthand how municipalities included things like stores, auditoriums, drive-up book deposits, cafes, children and teen areas, and common areas. They also visited two libraries that were former retail stores.

“Each one had something that we wanted to consider or feature for our library,” he said.

Gamez said once the new library is renovated and filled it could be the largest, single-story library in the nation.

No one officially keeps track of that data, but a preliminary search showed that it is rare for libraries to be larger than 100,000 square feet.

Most if not all of the nation’s largest public libraries that go beyond that mark have multiple levels.

The tricky part for Gamez and the rest of the local team is figuring out how to balance the traditional book-shelving library system with the rapidly growing electronic world and then fit it into a huge space that doesn’t require patrons to walk 300 feet just to ask a question or find another book.

He said the toughest part is trying to predict the future of what will happen to libraries as more and more information is stored electronically and younger and younger patrons are going to the online world to access it.

“Will the public be reading books in 2025? That is what makes it a challenge,” Gamez said.

Once city officials and the architects know exactly what they are dealing with, they can start to talk seriously about the design, which is expected to begin next spring. Groundbreaking is slated for April 2009.

Jackie Leatherman covers Hidalgo County and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4424.