Library Gets Historic Status
The Canoga Park branch library, an example of mid-1950s architecture, has been approved as a city historic-cultural monument.
Designed in the late 1950s by the architectural firm of Bowerman and Hobson, the library at 7260 Owensmouth Ave. opened in 1959.
It is the first mid-1950s design city library to receive the historic designation, said Susan Kent, city librarian.
The historic designation was approved Wednesday by the Los Angeles City Council.
The 6,469-square-foot building has a “folded plate” concrete roof, metal frame and clerestory windows.
Library officials submitted the request to the city and asked the architectural firm of Mellon and Associates, which specializes in historic preservation, to review the structure for preservation status.
In a few years the Owensmouth library will be emptied of its books and used for another purpose.
A new library, on Sherman Way, will be twice as large and is now being designed, Kent said.
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