Seismic Work on Central Library Will Take Years to Complete, Cost Over $100 Million

In a report on repairs to Pasadena’s Central Library, the City Council was told on Monday that seismic work on the Central Library will take several years to complete.

The upgrade could cost $111 million, but that estimate is rough.

The amount does not include current inflation projections and could change due to increasing construction costs and other factors that could be refined down the line.

On May 3, City officials were forced to close Central Library for a required seismic retrofit and restoration to meet life safety requirements. A structural assessment revealed that most of the building consists of unreinforced masonry.

“The Central Library is the major hub of our library system,” said City Manager Steve Mermell.

Mermell toured the building with Library Director Michelle  Perera.

“We don’t want to walk back into the building and it looks like it has just been painted inside,” Perera told the City Council. “This is a huge opportunity.”

According to Perera the need for more flexible space will be important going forward while preserving the historical integrity of the building.

“We have a real opportunity to look at this as a library of the future.”

On Monday, the council approved an item allowing the library to use Jefferson Elementary School, which was shuttered earlier by the Pasadena Unified School District.

According to a city staff report, KPFF Consulting Engineers has performed an assessment of the building’s condition and its various systems. City staff said that as part of a possible extension of a local parcel tax, voters might consider supporting additional funding to rehabilitate the nearly 100-year-old structure.

“I am hyper concerned about getting the library retrofitted as quickly as possible,” said Councilmember John Kennedy.

The five-year parcel tax was first initiated in 1993 when Pasadena voters agreed to tax themselves in order to prevent service reductions to city libraries due to the prevailing economic conditions at the time.

Since that time, the parcel tax has since been renewed twice, for 10 years and then for 15 years, in 1997 and 2007 respectively, each time with tremendous levels of voter support (1993 – 79.9%, 1997 – 84% and 2007 – 80.4%).

KPFF staff has issued a request for proposals in order to select a qualified design team, well-versed in both seismic retrofit and historic preservation, to further refine the analysis, prepare the environmental report, develop options for retrofit and refine budgetary estimates.

On Sept. 27, Assemblymember Chris Holden presented a check for $4 million to the city and Pasadena Public Library to help repair the nearly 100-year-old Central Library.

Although the Pasadena Central Library is closed at this time, it is supported by nine neighborhood branch libraries that are open and continue to offer in-person or online access to books and periodicals, collections, language arts, career and personal development programs, computers, and the internet.

The Central Library is one of the three major buildings in the city’s Civic Center District as part of the Bennett Plan. It was dedicated on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, Feb. 12, 1927.

The plan, developed by architect Edward Bennett, placed the city’s most important civic institutions — including the library and City Hall — within an area where streets conclude at the buildings: City Hall to the east, the library to the north, and the Civic Center to the south.

The library was closed for a year during the pandemic.

The Central Library is home to almost 300,000 items in its collection. As such, it is not possible to relocate all these materials to the branches.

Consequently, staff has been pursuing options for the continued operation of Library programs and the relocation of the collection, including use of a modular building in the Central Library parking lot that currently serves as a materials handling location to ensure new materials are making their way into the system and circulating.