Library expansion named ‘2011 Facility of the Year’

The City of Fullerton has been notified that the recent Fullerton Public Library Renovation and Expansion Project has been selected to receive the “2011 Facility of the Year Award” from the American Public Works Association, Southern California Chapter.

The award is in the category of cities with populations from 100,001-200,000.

Don Hoppe, engineering director for the city, said the award is very gratifying, adding his staff is “thrilled with the final results of the project.  The library has been expanded and renovated to meet the community’s needs for the next 15-20 years.”

Hoppe noted technology in the nearly 40-year-old building is now current, from the new automated book check-in equipment to extensive on-line connection capability.  The new landscaping is water wise and the City will save tens of thousands of gallons of water over the next two decades.

“The exterior face of the building along Commonwealth Avenue, previously a simple unwelcoming masonry block wall, has been ‘activated’ by virtue of the dozen new windows that bring the inside of the building out to pedestrians and motorists,” Hoppe said.

The project, which was officially opened to much acclaim in July, consisted of an approximate 56,000-square-foot renovation and refurbishment of existing library space, adding needed community, local history, technology and teen service areas, as well as an overall facelift for the Library

The approximate 6,000-square-foot expansion included addition of a large community meeting room, kitchen, café space and bookstore.  The used bookstore is being operated by the nonprofit Friends of the Fullerton Public Library as a fund-raiser to support library services.

The approximately $10 million Library expansion/renovation project was made possible through redevelopment bond funds issued by the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency.

A subcontract of the expansion was the construction of a photovoltaic system that will capture solar power to help cut energy costs for the library.  The solar panels were installed in the library parking lot on top of a support structure.

The system has the capacity to generate approximately 84,300 kilowatt hours annually, which would equate to approximately 11 percent of the library’s total yearly energy usage.  In today’s dollars, the savings could range up to $15,000 annually.

The installation was funded through an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, which is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

This entry was posted on November 2, 2011 at 12:58 pm and is filed under City Guide, Civic, Community Organizations, Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.