Cambridge Public Library
|
Cambridge Public Library
|
|
1888 building (photo 2012)
|
|
 
|
|
| Location | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°22′27″N 71°6′38″W / 42.37417°N 71.11056°WCoordinates: 42°22′27″N 71°6′38″W / 42.37417°N 71.11056°W |
| Built | 1888 |
| Architect | Van Brunt & Howe (1888), William Rawn Associates (2009) |
| Architectural style | Other, Romanesque |
| MPS | Cambridge MRA |
| NRHP Reference # | 82001931 |
| Added to NRHP | April 13, 1982 |
The Cambridge Public Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts is part of the Minuteman Library Network. It consists of a main library and six branches, located throughout the city.
In fiscal year 2014, the city of Cambridge spent 1.63% ($7,064,381) of its budget on the library, $66 per person.
The main building of the Cambridge Public Library is an historic library building at 449 Broadway. It was built in 1888 with land and full construction funding donated by Frederick H. Rindge, a Cambridge native and philanthropist. Its Richardsonian Romanesque design was by Van Brunt & Howe. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
A $90 million expansion and renovation of the library, led by the Boston architectural firms William Rawn Associates and Ann Beha Architects, opened on November 8, 2009. The new addition more than triples the square footage of the building, and is the first building in the USA to make use of European Double-Skin Curtainwall technology. Architectural drawings and construction photos are available here. During most of the construction, the library collection had been relocated to the Longfellow School.
Prior to the renovation of the main library, the library was home to a scale model of the planet Saturn in the Boston Museum of Science's community-wide solar system model. Saturn was located just outside the portion of the building that housed the old stacks, roughly where the computer workstation sign-in table is currently located. The Saturn model was packed up and shipped back to the Museum of Science and was not positioned at the reopened renovated library. Other locations in Cambridge that still have models in the historic nine planet series are the Royal Sonesta Hotel (home of Earth) and the Cambridgeside Galleria mall (home of Mars).
...
Wikipedia