Hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional spending were approved Thursday for the Madison Central Library renovation designed to make the building more evolutionary and appeal to a wider number of Madisonians.
The board unanimously agreed to accept an amendment in the contract between the City of Madison and Meyer Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd. for $570,429 in additional spending for architectural and engineering design examinations.
Brian Cooper, a developer for the redevelopment project, said a dominant portion of the design scope for the library presents major costs in architectural engineering and interior design. Provisions for additional funding of the project were originally indicated based on the size of the remodeling plan.
The amount provided by the amendment is less than previously expected and will not be included in the city’s $29.5 million budget, Cooper said.
He added that after the board accepts the additional spending, they will require several more months of cost estimation before beginning construction in late summer or early fall 2011.
President of the Madison Public Library Board Tripp Widder expressed his concern the design and grant approvals would not be completed on time for the prospected construction date.
“The April meeting represents the final design of the building and we should be done at this point,” Cooper said, noting delayed plans would force the fall 2011 construction date back.
The next meeting in the series of design completion for the library on Feb. 24 will be open to the public for a question and answer phase.
The board also approved an agreement with OrangeBoy Inc. to research and assess Central Library cardholders to make the upcoming remodeling of the building more appealing to both cardholding and non-cardholding residents.
Library Director Barbara Dimick said more data on library-users and non-users is important to the ongoing efforts to make the Central Library more modern and marketable.
“The tracking data from OrangeBoy will bring a different way of looking at our library,” Dimick said. “This will give us ideas about what kind of people are out there, who we are not marketing to, and what the new library can provide for them”.
Dimick expressed the importance of a third-party organization taking the responsibility of acquiring and aggregating cardholder data rather than leaving the responsibility to the library’s board.
The data collected by OrangeBoy would help rebrand the library and integrate a new message to the public, Widder said.
Efforts to create the new library plan have been underway for several months after the city’s Board of Estimates approved a resolution in April following many failed negotiations with developers about the price.
Jeff Scherer, chief architect of the design team for the library, previously told The Badger Herald the building would be sustainable and energy efficient.
A large amount of glass would be used in an attempt to reach gold status Leadership in Energy certification for its sustainability efforts, Scherer said.
The building will implement an evolutionary theme by gutting the existing structure and refitting it with sustainable material, as well as adding a third floor with large capacity offices.
The final meeting to discuss the plans will be held April 7. Groundbreaking is expected to take place in fall 2011.
