These renovations bring Durham’s downtown library into the 21st century. Check it out.

Starting this week, Durham County residents will be able to check out books, movies and CDs in a newly transformed Main Library, complete with a rooftop garden and children’s play areas.

After more than four years of renovations, the four-story building at 300 N. Roxboro St. will reopen to the public at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

The library closed in January 2017 for an anticipated two-year remodeling. The reopening was pushed to April 2020, and then further delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, Library Director Tammy Baggett-Best said she looks forward to welcoming back the community.

“When we have a buzz of people in the building, children, adults, teenagers — I mean, that’s the day we’ve been waiting for,” she said.

The renovations added 33,000 square feet to the library, upping the total footage to almost 100,000 square feet. It includes:

• Incubator space for Durham residents interested in starting a business.

• A green roof and outdoor terrace.

• A teen gaming area, a youth MakerLab and an innovative maker space with 3D printers. (Some of the library’s 3D printers were used to make face shields for first responders during the pandemic.)

• An outdoor amphitheater that seats 170 people and an indoor auditorium with retractable seats for up to 275 people.

• A multi-sensory room with a fiber optic waterfall, interactive light wall and tactical elements like bubble and hurricane tubes. This space is geared for children on the autism spectrum, Bagget-Best said.

• Expanded space for the library’s North Carolina Collection, dedicated to preserving the history of the state and Durham.

Baggett-Best said the library is a great equalizer.

“We are often described as the living room of Durham. So we want to invite everyone into this space,” she said.

“There really is something for everyone here.”

Design elements

The $44.3 million renovation was funded by a bond referendum passed by Durham County voters in 2016. The project was designed by Raleigh-based firm Vines Architecture.

Robert Thomas, director of designer on the project, said the goal was “reconnecting the building to the fabric of the city.”

“It’s more transparent, it’s more open, more vibrant, connected,” he said.

The original building was constructed in the 1980s when the city was more “car-centric” and people moved to the suburbs, Thomas explained. It was intentionally located on the edge of the Downtown Loop to provide more access for car transportation and parking, he said.

To make the building more pedestrian friendly and encourage foot traffic from the nearby Cleveland-Holloway neighborhood, the main entrance was moved to Liberty Street.

The renovations also added a skylight and other natural light, as well as openings between floors that visually connect book collections on different levels.

Environmental sustainability was a large focus, Thomas said, pointing to the green roof terrace, new spaces for outdoor programming and preservation of the building’s original concrete frame. He also said the library was certified as a LEED Gold project for renovations by the U.S. Green Building Council.

“There’s a memory of the structure that was underneath there,” Thomas said. “But an entirely new image for the building, and a building that is much, much more environmentally responsible for the reuse of it.”

‘It’s about the people’

Jane Kuhar, incoming president of Friends of the Durham Library, a nonprofit that helps support the entire county’s library system, said people are excited about being able to browse the collections again.

“Every time I’m there, I happen to be with other people who are picking up their takeout orders for books, and everybody is just chomping at the bit to be able to get back into the library,” she said.

Kuhar said the renovated Main Library embodies a 21st century library, bringing together the printed page and technology, safe spaces for shared discovery and exploration, and a hub of connection in a community.

“This is such a tribute to what I think Durham is to so many people,” she said.

Similarly, Baggett-Best said she hopes the library serves as a destination place for residents, who can use the facility’s resources in their day to day lives.

“Those are the things that excite me, just seeing the people come in and use this space the way it’s intended,” she said. “The building is gorgeous. But it’s not about the building. It’s about the people that will be inside our facility, and how we will impact those folks that are using our facility.”

Operating hours, COVID restrictions

Libraries across the Durham County system will expand business hours this week as the county lifts COVID-19 restrictions.

The Main Library will be open 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, and 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, starting Wednesday, July 21. All library branches are closed Sundays.

Staff will continue to ask screening questions, check library users’ temperatures and require social distancing and masks for those 2 years and older.

Baggett-Best said the Main Library will limit capacity to 200 visitors in the building, not including staff.

The collection: By the numbers

The Main Library collection has 177,175 items:

• 153,740 books

• 11,275 DVDs

• 6,405 music CDs

• 5,221 books on disc

• 214 items in the tactile collection

• 115 push and play readalongs

• 107 puzzles

• 92 book club kits

• 6 assistive technology kits

Maydha Devarajan is an intern at The News & Observer, supported by the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund at the North Carolina Community Foundation.

This story was originally published July 19, 2021 at 2:32 PM.