Lavish, Futuristic Library Opens

In a celebration marked by patriotic music and colorful balloons, about 8,000 people gathered Saturday in downtown Cerritos for the grand reopening of a library described as the next wave in learning experiences.

Among the first to step inside the $35-million futuristic building clad in titanium and hard-wired for interaction were engineer Mancefield Moore, his wife, Rhonda, and their children, Ryan, 10, and Melissa, 12.

“We came to see for ourselves if it’s all that city officials promised it would be,” Moore said. “I never had anything like it when I was growing up.”

That was an understatement.

Inside are 200 computer terminals, 12,000 laptop portals, a 15,000-gallon saltwater aquarium with 7-inch-thick glass and five sharks, a full-scale replica of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, a performance theater and a circulation desk built to resemble a time machine.

The 88,000-square-foot library, paid for with sales tax revenues generated by the city’s successful auto mall and regional malls, also contains 300,000 books.

Nonresidents Can Get Library Card for $100

The library is free to residents, city employees and students attending Cerritos schools. Nonresidents are welcome, city officials said, but they will have to pay $100 for a library card to enjoy its services and check out books.

But the primary products of the library on Bloomfield Avenue at 183rd Street--about 10 miles north of Long Beach and just west of Buena Park--are not literary works; they are patrons with a yen to learn something.

The very architecture of the place aims to stimulate with themes--”Main Street,” “Saving the Planet” and “Traveling Through Time” --designed to focus interest on community life, environmental awareness, history and the future.

As soon as the doors opened, Mayor Paul W. Bowlen and city Librarian Waynn Pearson planted themselves in the lobby to greet newcomers and invite them to explore.

“It’s one thing to build a beautiful structure like this one,” Pearson said. “But it’s quite another to see it filled with so many happy faces.”

The urban birthplace of auto malls and freeway buffer walls built its first library on a strawberry patch in 1973. It was remodeled and expanded in 1987.

But a rapidly growing population and a library cardholder base nearly three times the national average wore that rectangular edifice out within two decades.

With the third make-over, the ethnically diverse city with a population of 53,000 mostly avid readers broke the mold.

As Cerritos City Councilwoman Gloria A. Kappe put it, “We don’t build big Kleenex boxes.”

It’s hard to find a vertical or horizontal line anywhere in the library, which is a block from Cerritos High School and across the street from the Center for the Performing Arts.

Designed by Jim Nardini of the Glendale architectural firm Charles Walton and Associates, even the library’s titanium exterior is intended to reflect change.

“We’ve built 35 libraries, but none like this one; it’s unique,” said Steve Finney, the architectural firm’s president. “Being able to make a special statement to children--that learning is fun--was a labor of love.”

80,000 Books in Children’s Section

Six-year-old Kaila King and her 8-year-old sister, Nicole, were perfect candidates for the 80,000-volume children’s section, the entrance of which is a cheery jumble of brightly colored giant books.

Just beyond them is 40-foot-long Stanley the T-rex, a mock rain forest and the aquarium containing five sharks that locals have affectionately dubbed the “Cerritos City Council.”

Ogling Stanley’s 6-inch-long teeth with eyes as big as saucers, Nicole said, “Pretty cool place! I’ve never seen anything so amazing before.”

“Terrific!” her sister said.

Across the lobby, in the collegiate Gothic atmosphere of the Old World Reading Room, patrons admired the long mahogany shelves, custom chairs and a holographic fire seeming to flicker in a warm hearth.

“The detail work is remarkable everywhere you look,” said artist Lita Albuquerque. “The pattern on the carpet matches the patterns on the roof--even the lawns are mowed in artistic designs.”

Leaning against a railing overlooking the 21st century section, which emulates the Art Deco architecture of the former Pan Pacific Auditorium, construction worker Tony Garcia, 44, could not help reflecting on the past.

“It’s a marvelous feeling being here today,” he said. “When I came to Cerritos in 1964, it was all dairy farms. Just look at it now.”