Clearwater city officials asked for a "signature building" for their new main library - a building worthy of its spectacular site atop the high bluff overlooking Clearwater Harbor.
On Saturday, famous New York architect Robert A.M. Stern delivered, helping to cut the ribbon and open the doors to a library that knows no equal on the west coast of Florida.
Library lovers will adore this place. Even people who have never liked libraries - who found them musty, dark and boring places - will discover that a new library designed with the future in mind is a different place altogether.
This library is full of light and soaring open spaces, so if books don't occupy you, there is always the view of Coachman Park, the harbor, Clearwater Beach and the Gulf of Mexico through the west-facing floor-to-ceiling windows. No musty smell here - on opening day, the aroma of fresh coffee percolated through the building from the coffee shop on the ground floor. Here, there isn't the customary deathly silence that makes some people feel awkward in a library. Instead, the sound of happy chatter filters upward from the coffee shop and the children's floor, hip-hop music plays in the teen library, and there is the clicking of keys on keyboards at computers located all over the building.
There is indeed something for everyone in this library. Downtown workers will be able to grab a coffee or lunch in Joffrey's Coffee Shop after it opens for daily business, likely by mid May. A stand-alone gift shop offers library-related items as well as souvenirs for the tourists who surely will make this one of their stops. An art gallery lines the ground floor on the side facing Osceola Avenue, with big windows that create an intimate connection with the street outside.
The second floor, just for young people, is a real gift to present and future generations of Clearwater children. The furnishings are bright and fun. Child-sized chairs and stools with duck feet. Beautiful carved glass panels by Tarpon Springs glass artists Julian and Karin Mesa that show a mother reading to children, surrounded by whimsical animals. An elaborately furnished doll house. Couches where parents and children can cuddle and read together.
On the same floor, there is a separate teen room decorated in neon green and black, where teens can relax, talk, listen to music, or read magazines like GamePro, Dirt Bike, YM or Elle Girl.
While each of the library's four floors is different, serving a different purpose and audience, there is a continuity of design and decor throughout. Stern's architectural firm designed the interior as well, even creating original pieces of furniture for the library. Stern attended the grand opening and seemed, along with the excited library staff, delighted to see the building filled with hundreds of smiling people exploring every nook and cranny and lining up to check out 1,500 items in just more than four hours.
The library is not just beautiful and functional, it also has the sturdy feel of a building that will last. For that, city government deserves credit. The $20.2-million Clearwater Main Library is done right and done well, and is a long-term investment by a city administration that is trying to build for the future. Two such public projects now anchor opposite sides of the city: the new baseball stadium on the east and the new library on the west.
Public buildings ought to be a reflection of a community's pride and its hopes for the future. This library accomplishes that and more. Congratulations to the city government, architects and designers, library staff, private donors and taxpayers of Clearwater.
