Public Meeting on Chinatown Library Feasibility Study

Last night the City of Boston, the Chinatown Library Committee, Boston Public Library and the architectual firm Miller, Dyer and Spears presented their initial findings on a possible new library in Chinatown. The last few years there have been an effort to bring back a branch library to Chinatown through a group called the Chinatown Library Committee. The committee made a breakthrough last year in 2006 when Mayor Menino authorized $35,000 to conduct a feasibility study on where a possible branch library may be built. Three firms competed for designation to work on the feasibility study and Miller, Dyer, Spears (MDS) was selected by a panel that included City and community judges.

The public meeting was the first meeting to update on the progress of the feasibility study and to explain the programmatic uses of the library. Daniel Cho, project manager from MDS gave an overview of the characteristics of the library. Their purpose was to ask what the community was looking for in programming usage and then to evaluate which sites could potentially serve those spaces.

There were over 60 people who came last night. Some of the participants, including the Chinatown Blogger, asked about the potential sites where a library may be built. Myron Miller, principal of MDS replied that this would be included in a second study to be done later. A spokesperson from the Boston Public Library, Carol Mahoney, said that the community should check out the bpl.org website to find out what other branch libraries had done with programming uses.

The Chinatown Blogger had a printed handout which he had asked MDS over month ago. This handout was not given to those in attendance last night and gave more details. In terms of scheduling, the handout estimates between Aug 2007 - Jan 2008 a Site Evaluation will be conducted, which will include information gaterhing, site and program tests, and a final site shortlist with layout and cost. A 2nd public meeting will be held sometime between Jan 2008 - Mar 2008 with the final program, layout and estimate and copies of the study to be distributed.

In the designs, there will be some general assumptions such as Wi-Fi through the building and a Large Meeting Room zoned for after-hours use and near the entry.

Program components were:(Abbreviated)

Entry/Circulation: Prominent signage, open feel, secure, touch-screen kiosk with library and cultura information in lobby, community bulletin, self-checkout stations

Meeting/Multi-Purpose Room: zoned for after-hours use, 120 capacity seating, A/V equipment, simultaneous translation, 20 seats in conference room.

Adult Services: include Asian Language and ESL instruction, books in multiple languages, total adult collection 26,836

Young Adult Services: college research center, separate class room, total young adult collection 9,045

Children’s Services: display arts and crafts, maintain security with librarian at checkpoint at entrance and separate restroom, spaces to for adults to read to children, total collection 19,965

Cultural Archive and Display: photography of community artifacts, exhibit preparations

Site Amenities: Garden/courtyard with chess tables and benches, adjacent to a privately owned cafe or tea house? (subject to cafe/tea house approval - my words), storage for landscape maintenance, bicycle storage for public

There are 11 preliminary potential sites for the library.

1. Parcel A - between Marginal Rd. and Washington St, site of Quincy Upper School

2. Chinatown Gateway Development - 20 acre land bordered by Kneeland St, South Station, I-90 highway

3. BRA Washington St. Lot - on Tremont St. next to Double Tree Inn Hotel

4. Tufts Parking Lot - Between Tyler and Hudson St. where the former YMCA bubble was

5. Harvard St. - Corner of Harvard, Tyler and Hudson St, adjacent to Tufts Parking Lot

6. Hudson St. - Next to the Chinatown Gate park and Ginza Japanese restaurant

7. Oxford St. - Parking lot where Hudson Group and Chinese Economic Development Council has proposed to build housing there

8. Teradyne Building - On Kneeland, Lincoln, Beach and Surface Artery. Sold to Millenium Partners last year.

9. Chinese Merchants Building - On Kneeland and Hudson with the “Welcome to Chinatown” sign

10. Original Quincy School - 90 Tyler St. owned by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association

11. Parcel 24 - On Hudson St., will be developed into housing by Asian Community Development Corporation in 2010

I had to leave by 7:15pm and could not stay throughout the whole meeting. If anyone was there and had anything to add please post it in the comments section. I thought it was a good start and my only suggestion was if handouts could have been made available for reading because trying to decipher the diagrams on the projection screen was somewhat difficult.

This entry was posted on September 19, 2007 at 12:04 pm and is filed under WORD ON THE STREET. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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