What do you want to see in Tucson's new downtown library?

The library’s next home is directly across the street.

The director of the Pima County Public Library can see it from her desk, and last week she invited the rest of us to share what we see as the library begins imagining its new location in the Wells Fargo Bank Building at 150 N. Stone Ave.

With a short survey sent to more than 24,000 cardholders in the greater downtown area, the library launched a months-long public-engagement initiative that will help library leaders and project architects floor-plan a facility they hope to open in 2029.

“What space or programs would you like to see in the new location?”

That is the last question in the survey, and one that will be asked often in the months ahead.

“This project is so important to so many people, we want to make sure we hear from everyone who cares about the building, everyone who might have a stake in it,” Mayer said.

“There are a couple of schools downtown. There are people who live downtown and people who work downtown. There are seasonal folks who won’t be back until the fall. We want to make sure we hear from all of them, from as many people as we can.”

This community feedback phase is the latest chapter in a story that began two years ago, when county officials learned that deferred maintenance on the current library in Jácome Plaza had reached some $80 million.

Needed repairs, moreover, would force the library to close for two years.

Ultimately, last summer, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to purchase and renovate the Wells Fargo Building … and move the library across the street when it is ready.

“It’s really an exciting opportunity, the idea of being able to participate from the beginning on a project that’s so important to the library and all of downtown,” Mayer said. “At library conferences, we talk a lot about the library of the future. Here, we have a chance to build one.”

Built in 1957, the library’s new location was originally the home of Southern Arizona Bank and Trust. Wells Fargo acquired both the bank and the building in 1975, and the downtown branch served as Wells Fargo’s local headquarters until closing in 2022.

Mayer first toured the space last fall, shortly after becoming the library’s new director in September.

“I could see why so many people loved it,” she recalls. “Not being an architect, I had to imagine what the possibilities might be, but even I could see there are some elements there that will make our new library really special.”

Tucson’s Line and Space, whose credits include the University of Arizona Poetry Center, was selected to design the new facility. Sundt Construction will be the re-builder. Both will take part in the private meetings and community forums being scheduled over the coming months.

“This is the most important part of the entire process, deciding what we want the library to be, how it might be used,” Mayer said. “It’s really important that the final result reflect what people want to see here.”

Interestingly, Mayer’s first job as a librarian was at the new downtown library in Seattle when it opened in 2004.

“It changed the entire area, it changed Seattle,” she recalls, and while here isn’t there, she can envision a library that is more than a place to find good books.

“One thing I saw when I first moved here was how vibrant the downtown area was — and that was at the end of August,” Mayer said. “It just got better as time went on. We have a great opportunity to become an integral part of downtown; a gathering place, a ‘third place’ where everyone can feel comfortable and know they belong. It’s really important that we get this right.”

Any timeline is tentative at this point, but the library is hoping to start construction next year and open its new doors in the spring or summer of 2029.

Those wanting to weigh in on the new central library can access the survey on its website: library.pima.gov/downtown-library-building-project/.

Footnotes

• Tucson’s first downtown library opened in 1883 on the second floor of City Hall. In 1901, with funding from Andrew Carnegie, it moved to Armory Park and the building that is now the Tucson Children’s Museum. The library moved to its current location in Jácome Plaza in 1990.
• In 2002, the downtown library was renamed the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, honoring the man who had been Tucson’s city manager from 1974-90. He was the first Hispanic ever to manage a major American city.
• Jennifer J. Stewart, the library’s Writer in Residence this summer, will hold her last public workshop July 25 at the Kirk-Bear Canyon branch. She will be sharing strategies to help new authors scale whatever writer’s block they may be facing. The workshop will be from 1:30 to 3 p.m., and no registration is required.
• The UA Poetry Center will again be the hub for this year’s “Sealey Challenge,” an initiative launched by poet Nicole Sealey in 2017. The challenge: to read one book of poetry every day during the month of August. To learn more, visit thesealeychallenge.com.
• Congratulations, Ellen Dickinson, on your retirement after 21 years in the book department at the UA Campus Store. Dickinson was the store’s buyer for the Tucson Festival of Books. Over the festival’s 17 years, she ordered some 650,000 of them.