Library Expansion Project Detailed

On Sunday afternoon, a meeting was held at the Phoenixville Library to discuss plans for its expansion. The plan calls for an expansion across 2nd Street.

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The proposal puts priority on “protecting and enhancing the 1903 Carnegie library building,” especially in “retaining the reading room as a real reading room,” Carnevale said; on a larger children’s library, and space for young adult readers; on new dedicated space for public meetings, for materials collection increases and computer information access, and for staff services, though, Deveney said, the proposal as it stands “would require no increase in current staff.”

Deveney granted, however, that a larger facility would entail larger utilities bills. “But the proposal also provides for renovation of some utilities, and additions of new, more efficient equipment,” he said.

The concept plan proposes a three-floor addition to the Carnegie building, new construction that will also incorporate renovation of the library’s 1987 addition. “We promise you we will get rid of the ‘Taco Bell’ look,” Carnevale said.

A new main entrance will be placed off an entry plaza at Main Street on what is now Second Avenue. Parking is proposed diagonally (“a traffic-calming device,” Carnevale said) on sections of Main Street.

With the closing of Second Avenue, traffic would remain two-way only from Starr to B Streets, run one-way west to the library at Park Alley and one-way north on Park.
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For more, see the article in today's Phoenix.