Improvements to the 32,000 square foot library are based on requests by the community to improve and expand the library’s children’s section, expand Spark Place, the library’s maker space, and increase the natural light in the building.
“It’s the public’s living room,” Colón said. “This is a place that everybody will feel at home, and I’m really proud of that.”
Much of the limestone panels — originally built to protect against tornadoes — have been removed, and modern, weatherproof windows have been installed in their place. Triangular bump-out reading alcoves have been built into the wall facing Market Street.
The library’s new entrance has been constructed on the corner of Market Street and Whiteman Street, nearer to the library’s parking lot, and the sidewalk has been widened for better wheelchair access.
On the second floor, which contains the Greene County Room, used for genealogy research, as well as public meeting rooms and administrative offices, much of the internal walls have been replaced with glass panels and doors.
Xenia’s “mini-library” has remained open, and Spark Place has remained open on the first floor. During the renovation alone, Spark Place has gone from serving 3,000 patrons a month to 4,000 patrons a month — and growing.
“We definitely didn’t predict that,” Colón said. “But we’re able to accommodate it, and that number may go up again really quickly once we have all the space that we need.”
Once Spark Place is installed in its planned location on the first floor, it will roughly double in size from 900 square feet to 1,800 square feet. While the library is not planning to add new machines to the makerspace, the renovations provide some much-needed elbow room, Colón said.
“One of the neatest things about the makerspace...was watching community members stare over one another’s shoulders and go, ‘Oh, that’s cool. Could you show me?’” he said. “Books are tools. Makerspaces are tools. DVDs are tools. But it’s the people getting together and what they do when they pursue their dreams through those tools that make a library special.”
In a few weeks, library staff will begin transitioning the mini library to the other side of the first floor to renovate the west side of the library building, which will become the rest of the new children’s section.
The entire project is on-time and under budget, Colón said, and is still expected to be completed in early 2025.
K4 Architecture serves as the architects for the library, and StaffCo construction was awarded the project.
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