SANTA MONICA PUBLIC LIBRARY OPENS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date:       January 4, 2006
Contact:  Susan Annett, Principal Librarian, Public Services, (310) 458-8640
 

The new Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Boulevard, is now open to the public. The 104,000 square foot library was designed by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects and Planners, recipient of the prestigious American Institute of Architect’s 2006 Architecture Firm of the Year Award.

The first floor features major activity centers, such as a large area for children and teens, fiction and popular materials’ collections, a grand reading room, and customer service areas. Other highlights of the ground level include a landscaped central courtyard, public art, the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium, Friends of the Library Book Store, and space for The Bookmark Café and the Santa Monica Historical Society Museum.

The second floor focuses on research and study. It features nonfiction, reference, periodicals, and world languages’ collections and service points, the Santa Monica Collection, study rooms, a quiet reading area, computer commons, computer training room, and community meeting rooms. The Stanton Macdonald-Wright Library Mural series (1934-35), on long-term loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is displayed on the second level. Conservation and reinstallation of the murals is made possible, in part, by a grant from the California Cultural and Historical Endowment.

The Main Library hosts a Grand Opening on Saturday, January 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The day-long celebration features a ribbon-cutting ceremony; book readings and signings with actors and children’s book authors, Jamie Lee Curtis and Rhea Perlman; interviews with key individuals and community members involved in the library project; and interviews with prominent authors, Sid Fleischman, Ernest Marquez, Carolyn See, and Sonya Sones. Youth Services hosts a full-day of fun activities for children and teens including a Teen Lounge Open House, a fiesta, and special appearances by the Swazzle Puppet Theatre, edu-tainer Janeece Flint, and The Animal Guys. The Grand Opening is followed by special library programs during January and February 2006.

Main Library hours are Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m. Public parking is available in a three-level subterranean parking garage and a surface lot both entered from Seventh Street, between Santa Monica Boulevard and Arizona Avenue.

For more information, please call (310) 458-8600, or visit www.smpl.org.

This page was last updated on 01/04/06.