ECHO PARK : New Library Plans Available for Review

Residents may review and comment on the design of the new Echo Park Branch Library at a Jan. 12 community meeting.

Lang/Lampert Architects of Irvine will present floor-plan proposals and concepts and solicit input from residents for the new library, the location of which has been debated.

The 12,500-square-foot building, to be built at Temple and Douglas streets, will be almost twice as large as the current library on Laveta Terrace. The new building will also allow for a bookstore to be run by Friends of the Echo Park Library.

The date construction will start is uncertain because the plans face a lengthy process of city review and approvals.

The project, including land acquisition, design and construction, will cost an estimated $4.8 million.

The original library at Temple Street and Glendale Boulevard was declared unsafe after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake. The materials were moved into what was supposed to be a temporary home on Laveta Terrace, but the branch has remained there for 20 years.

When money for a permanent branch became available after Los Angeles voters passed the 1989 Library Construction Bond Act, the Friends group began pushing to have the branch built north of the Hollywood Freeway. Any site south of the freeway is not in Echo Park and would benefit only the Central City West commercial and residential development proposed just outside Downtown, the Friends said.

But the Board of Library Commissioners approved purchase of the vacant lot at Temple and Douglas, saying there were no suitable sites north of the freeway.

When the Friends threatened to sue, the board last spring agreed to pursue building a second branch north of the freeway. The commissioners promised to look into using money from the sale of the temporary Laveta property to pay for the second branch.

But Karen Jaeger, one of the Friends, said she and others remain concerned that the board may back off its promise of a second branch, especially once construction begins on the Temple and Douglas facility.

The community meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the library, 515 N. Laveta Terrace.

Information: (213) 250-7808.