Clean, well-lighted places

The Mark Twain Branch library, with its thrusting planes of eggplant- and tangerine-colored stucco, would stand out in any part of town. But on Figueroa Street near Century Boulevard--a neighborhood rich in auto repair shops and thorny wrought-iron fences--the newly rebuilt library is more than just a startling contrast. It’s the sort of welcoming haven that Susan Kent, the city librarian, envisions as “the front porch of the community.”

That “front porch” and many others in the city’s sprawling library system have been transformed during the past five years, thanks to visionary Los Angeles city voters who approved Proposition DD, a $178.3-million bond in 1998 to rebuild nearly half of the city’s 68 branches. The 32 new libraries under construction or already open hardly resemble the 1950s- and ‘60s-era brick bunkers they replaced.

By next year, when the last new building opens, the bond measure will have paid to replace or expand 28 existing branches and build four new ones in communities that never had a library--Pico Union, Edendale (near Echo Park), Westwood and Playa Vista. Each library gets crisp new books, upholstered chairs, upgraded computers, a meeting room and a whimsical children’s corner.

The bond program’s overseers can boast of two accomplishments, all too rare in municipal construction projects: No two of the new buildings are alike, inside or out, and nearly all have opened on or ahead of time and within budget.

The uninspired design of the old branch libraries and decades of hard use had left them shabby and dispiriting places. Assistant city librarian Fontayne Holmes says their common feature was that “if you passed by one you didn’t even know it was a library.”

That’s changing fast. Those involved in the rebuilding effort, including 16 architectural firms and the city’s Bureau of Engineering, had to run a gantlet of community outreach meetings, tailoring each building to reflect neighborhood tastes. As a result, the Arroyo Seco Branch uses river stone and dark wood for an early 20th century Craftsman feel, the ultramodern West Valley Regional Branch features exposed steel beams and curved translucent awnings to blunt the afternoon sun, and the swooping roof of the Encino-Tarzana Branch stands out from the commercial cacophony of Ventura Boulevard. The Mark Twain Branch, North Hollywood’s beautifully restored Amelia M. Earhart Regional Branch and four other buildings--representing the work of five architectural firms--already have won design awards.

“We’re not going for the golden arches approach,” Kent says.

Still, the new libraries seem to have McDonald’s mass appeal. About 600 people attended the Chinatown Branch rededication ceremony in February, and 1,200 watched Kent cut the ribbon at the Palisades Branch a couple of weeks later. Since reopening, branches have seen their circulation soar--at the Mark Twain Branch, it’s up 300% from pre-reconstruction levels. During a recent visit, the branch bustled like a cruise ship. In the library’s community room, for example, puppeteers showed 50 exuberant youngsters how to convert empty milk jugs into cross-eyed queens and googly-eyed fish. Librarians who once spent their days checking out books and answering reference questions now preside over jazz concerts, Internet classes, gardening seminars, preschool story times, chess clubs and job workshops.

Librarians such as Margaret Murphy at the Mar Vista Branch hear kudos from delighted neighbors. The most common complaint, though, is that patrons have to fight for a space in the crowded parking lots.

Credit for the taut project management goes to a partnership between Holmes and Sam Tanaka, program manager for the library facilities division of the Bureau of Engineering. They’re an unlikely pair. Tanaka sports the signature pocket pens of an engineer, while Holmes’ wardrobe runs to straight skirts and gold jewelry. Together they moderated 172 community meetings where neighbors helped hammer out each branch’s design and special touches. Tanaka’s engineering staff held the 16 architectural firms and 18 contractors on a short leash with careful, upfront cost estimates.

Tanaka and Holmes kept the projects on track with weekly progress meetings, monthly oversight reviews by representatives from key city departments and thousands of phone calls and e-mails. They even managed to wring out more than $3.3 million in savings from the 32 branches budgeted in the 1998 bond measure--money that will be used to build a 33rd library, the Harbor Gateway-Harbor City Branch. There also is talk of a 34th branch.

Proposition DD, which passed with 73% of the vote, is the latest in a string of successful library bond measures. The 1920 and 1926 bonds paid for the original Central Library downtown and 14 other city branches. Twenty-eight more opened courtesy of a 1957 measure, and a 1989 measure funded earthquake repairs and upgrades at 30 branches, including three libraries built by industrialist Andrew Carnegie between 1913 and 1916.

When the last of the Proposition DD branches opens in 2004, the city will have replaced or expanded 90% of its libraries within 15 years. “Folks in L.A. love their libraries,” Kent says. But, she adds, “These are not quiet places anymore. We don’t do ‘shush.’ ”