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ROSEVILLE RAMSEY COUNTY LIBRARY
2180 N. Hamline Av., Roseville
Type: Public library
Area: 30,000 square feet (addition)
Cost: $17 million
Year built: 1993
Developer: Ramsey County
Details: The most popular library in Minnesota is nearing a $17 million makeover.
Ramsey County's Roseville Public Library -- not the glitzy new downtown Minneapolis library, as some would guess -- is the busiest library in the state in terms of circulation, and county officials have scheduled a renovation of the popular facility.
Roseville officials are considering a conditional use permit application from Ramsey County to completely renovate the 43,000 square feet of existing space in the 15-year-old building, as well as to add a 30,000-square-foot second floor. Roseville Community Development Director Pat Trudgeon said the permit is likely to come before the Roseville City Council in late August.
The Roseville library was designed to accommodate a second floor when it was built in 1993, and library officials say its soaring popularity is ample evidence that an addition is justified. Its 2007 circulation of nearly 1.7 million pieces is 53 percent more than in 1998, shortly after a Dunn Bros. coffee shop was added, and it attracts more than 700,000 visitors per year.
The library, just south of Hwy. 36, is easily accessible from wide areas of suburban St. Paul and northeast Minneapolis, Ramsey Libraries Director Susan Nemitz said.
"It was designed to support a circulation of 1 million, and we're well past that now," she said. "There will be a huge children's room in the addition -- there is a high demand for that. We now have a very small teen area, but with the new facility, we'll have a fully enclosed teen room."
Roseville-based McGough Companies has been hired to be the project's construction manager. The Ramsey County Board has yet to decide some of the details of the project, such as whether it will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified or if the library will remain open during the project. A community meeting is set for the evening of July 29 at the library to discuss that issue.
DON JACOBSON
Don Jacobson is a freelance journalist based in St. Paul. He can be contacted at: hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.
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