City Seeks Funding for Central Library Retrofit and Renovation, Which Could Cost $120 Million or More

The city is now seeking funding for the seismic retrofit and renovation of the Pasadena Central Library, which closed its doors last year due to seismic safety issues.

At the meeting of the Public Library Commission on Wednesday, March 16, Tim McDonald, Acting Director of the Pasadena Public Library and Information Services Department said city staff has been sending applications for grants since last week to fund the library’s construction – which according to to Commissioner Michael Stammer could cost up to $120 million or more.

According to McDonald, the department submitted to the National Park Service an application for a $500,000 grant for the project’s construction last week.

This week, he said the department will submit to the California State Library an application for a $10 million grant for the project.

“Grant funding is one of the opportunities that we will be looking at and like I have said, we will pursue everyone that we can,” said McDonald.

“Work is fast and furious on all the grants that we can find,” he added.

McDonald said the city is yet to determine how much money is needed to fund the project but he also said that the grants he mentioned will not fully cover the cost of the library restoration.

“We don’t know exactly what it will cost but the amounts I have mentioned will not cover it for sure.”

“The city manager will be the one who will develop a funding strategy for how we are going to pay for this. It will likely be a combination of grant funding and bond measure,” said McDonald.

Designed by Myron Hunt and H.C. Chambers in 1924, Central Library was the first building completed in Pasadena’s historic Civic Center Plan and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On May 3, 2021, City officials ordered its closure after engineers had found that the building would likely collapse in moderate to large earthquakes.

On November 1, 2021, the Department of Public Works issued a Request for Proposals for the preparation of the environmental document and architectural and engineering design services for the seismic retrofit, as well as additional services for building systems upgrades and renovations at the library including: installation of a new fire alarm and fire sprinkler system; roof replacement; mechanical, electrical, and plumbing upgrades; Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades; and improvements to the exterior courtyard and parking lot.

At Wednesday’s meeting, McDonald announced that a team of library, public works and city planning staff recently interviewed the top four firms among the firms that offered architectural and engineering design services for the seismic retrofit and renovations of the library.

He said their recommendation will be brought up to the City Council this coming May or June.

“One firm clearly rose to the top among all of the people in the interview panel and we are doing some further vetting of that firm.”

“The timeline would be to take our recommendation to the City Council in May or June of this year, with a recommendation for which selected candidate the city should enter a contract with,” McDonald said.