Maitland approves $2.3 million contract with architects for new library
The Maitland City Council last week approved a $2.3 million contract with architects to design its new public library, the latest major development in the years-long project.
HBM Architects and Interior Designers, with which the city has been working since February 2023, will design the new two-story, 20,000 square-foot facility and improvements for Quinn Strong Park, where the library will be located.
The contract was negotiated following the March referendum which saw residents approve $14 million in public bonds for the project. The project is estimated to cost about $19 million. The city already had $5 million on hand.
The project has been in various stages of development since 2017, when the city authorized a review to determine whether it should refurbish its existing library or construct a new one. The city chose the latter option the following year, and picked Quinn Strong Park as the new site of the library in 2020.
The city’s current library, which opened in 1907, lacks a sprinkler system; does not include adequate space for classrooms, offices and a computer lab; and does not make accommodations for people with disabilities as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The library’s director, Stacie Larson, has been working to address issues with the library since she joined the staff in 2013. She is glad the initiative is finally moving forward.
“I was ready to do a jig, right down the aisles. Finally there has been such a weight, really, off my shoulders,” Larsen said. “People would not have voted yes in a referendum to build a new library if they didn’t think that the existing library was doing good things for their community.”
She says the new library will provide not just an educational center, but a community space for Maitland residents as the current library has done for years.
“You see people who are just like you at work, just like you at church, but when you come to the library, you can interact with the whole community,” Larsen said. “You can really get to be part of that community and feel like it really is a community and not just a place where you live and you don’t even know your neighbor’s name.”
There are still questions over how the existing facility will be repurposed, as well as how senior services will be provided once the Maitland Senior Center is demolished to make way for the new facility.
