L.A.’s NEW LIBRARY : Looking Back: The Long Trek to Opening Day

July 15, 1926: The Los Angeles Central Library, designed by architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, is dedicated as “Without question one of the noblest buildings in America...It follows no accented order of architecture, but through it strains of the Spanish, of the East, of the modern European, come and go like folk songs in a great symphony, rising to new and undreamed-of heights in an order truly American in spirit.”

1933: The library climbs to first place in the nation in book circulation, with a record 13.3 million books borrowed: 10.7 per capita compared to New York’s 3.7 and Chicago’s 3.8. Many of those lining up at the library doors are casualties of the Great Depression, hoping to find in books an escape from unemployment.

1950: Responding to the postwar population boom, the library expands its branch system to include “super regional branches.” By 1957, the library is loaning over 10 million books yearly, the greatest tally since the circulation boom of the Depression.

1966: The building that City Librarian Everett R. Perry dedicated in 1926 as a refuge from “the petty distractions of the earthly pilgrimage” has begun to seem woefully inadequate. There is no air conditioning, few fans, and poor ventilation, forcing librarians and users to endure suffocatingly hot summers and cold, drafty winters. Telephones and elevators are often out of order and the electrical system is so outdated that even plugging in a coffee pot can precipitate a power outage. No provisions are made for the proper care and shelving of rare books: in one case, a Fourth Folio edition of Shakespeare is kept in a lavatory wrapped in blankets.

February 24, 1969: Most of the Central Library’s librarians stay home to dramatize the need for on-site parking. The Library Board votes to convert its tree-shaded West Lawn into a parking lot. The fledgling local historical preservation movement protests, but in the end, the park is lost to bulldozers and blacktop.

August, 1973: The Los Angeles Fire Department cites the Central Library for 26 separate fire and safety violations. The firefighters determine that the facility’s open stairwells could allow flames to spread unchecked throughout the building, and that the stack areas would function as giant flues.

1978: The passage of Proposition 13 deprives the library of city funds that had been committed to its renovation.

1981: The library offers to cede valuable land and air space to private corporations willing to fund the library’s renovation. Investors also would receive tax credits for helping renovate a historical property. The Community Redevelopment Agency works out an agreement with Maguire Thomas Partners to build two buildings tall enough to provide the bulk of the financing for restoration and expansion of the library.

1983: A team of national library consultants prepares a program and concept for the renovation and expansion. In June, the job is won by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, an architectural firm known for its work in adaptive reuse and expansion of historic buildings.

July, 1985: The Los Angeles City Council budgets $110.4 million to help renovate and expand the Central Library.

April 29, 1986: A major fire ravages the Central Library, burning out of control for more than four hours. Employees and patrons are evacuated without incident, but virtually every book in the library suffers some damage, with about 20% destroyed. Seven firefighters are injured by the blasts of steam generated when the water from their hoses is vaporized and hurled back at them by intense walls of flame. Arson is suspected.

Early May, 1986: 1,700 volunteers run frantic race to box, move and lift the library’s water-damaged books for flash-freezing, the only technique that will save them. Many of the books are sent to a cavernous, space-simulation chamber used to test satellites in Huntington Beach. The library launches its Save the Books campaign, which eventually draws $10 million, including $2 million from the J. Paul Getty Trust and over $3 million from ARCO and a telethon hosted by evangelist Gene Scott.

Sept. 3, 1986: A second blaze strikes the Central Library and is controlled in 36 minutes after burning down the second-floor music room. The fire destroys about 25,000 books and the largest public library collection of musical scores in the western United States.

June 3, 1987: Developer Robert F. Maguire III gives city officials $28.2 million to help finance the Central Library restoration. In return, he is given the right to build two office towers near the library at heights exceeding the allowable limit.

Nov. 3, 1987: Updating the plan it approved in 1985 to take into account fire damage, the Los Angeles City Council earmarks $151.5 million to refurbish and expand the Central Library.

April 21, 1988: The Cultural Heritage Commission, Community Redevelopment Agency board and library commission endorse architect Norman Pfeiffer’s design for renovating and expanding the Central Library.

Sept. 29, 1988: Having completed the first step in its book preservation program--arresting the development of mold and mildew--the library begins what it labels as “the largest book drying project ever.” Books are placed in chambers where pressure is reduced to the equivalent of a 115,000-foot altitude. Special pumps then extract 250,000 pounds of water.

Oct. 12, 1988: A third fire erupts in the library, this time causing only minor damage.

March 15, 1991: Mayor Tom Bradley and City Librarian Elizabeth Martinez celebrate the”topping out of the library” as a construction crew hoists the final 1,800 pound steel girder of the library’s new east wing. Martinez explained that the topping-out ritual derived from Druid and Chinese traditions to guard new buildings from evil spirits. “And here we are ... appeasing everyone!,” Martinez said. “We’re not taking any chances on this building!”

Sept. 10, 1993: Los Angeles City Council votes 11-1 against a proposal to sell part of the Central Library to tobacco giant Philip Morris for $71 million. While the complex plan would not have given Morris control over library operations, council members feared it would be politically unpopular.