Princeton Borough and Township voted to release $551,000 for the project.
By: Jennifer Potash
The Princeton Borough Council and the Princeton Township Committee gave the go-ahead Monday night for the Princeton Public Library to move forward with more detailed construction plans for a proposed three-story library.
The vote to release $551,000 the two governing bodies approved in April at a joint budget meeting came around 11 p.m. and was greeted with enthusiasm from library trustees
"Hooray!" shouted Lucy Mackenzie when the Borough Council voted unanimously.
The two governing bodies, however, have not granted final approval for the estimated $17.5 million project at the Witherspoon and Wiggins streets site of the current library, which would be demolished.
That step is not likely to occur until after the construction plans are completed, a process that could take six to nine months, officials said .
The Library Board of Trustees and The Hillier Group, the West Windsor-based architects for the project, concluded the phase one report presentation at a special joint meeting of the two governing bodies Monday night.
The bulk of the meeting was spent in closed session as the Borough Council and Township Committee and library trustees discussed several complex issues in order to move forward with the library’s expansion plan.
These concerns likely will be resolved by the time the library comes back to the Borough Council and the Township Committee with its detailed construction drawings and bids from potential contractors, said Harry Levine, president of the Library Board of Trustees.
A primary issue has been how the project will be funded.
By law, the library needs all the money up front to sign a construction contract. With that in mind, the plan is to have both municipalities put up the entire cost of the library through short-term bond anticipation notes and have the library reimburse the municipalities for its share, as its pledges come in over the next three years.
The library will be charged with raising between $11 and $12 million for the project, Mr. Levine said, the bulk of the project’s cost. The library has raised about $1.2 million thus far, according to Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi.
While the borough is expected to announce that it has hired a design team to do the economic and architectural feasibility study of a parking garage at the borough-owned Park & Shop lot and Tulane Street metered parking yard, the library trustees were charged with the task of developing a parking plan assuming the Park & Shop lot remains in place.
As for the temporary location for the library during the construction period, the library trustees gave the Borough Council and Township Committee an update on the status of the negotiations with the Princeton Regional Board of Education for use of the Valley Road building. That building is being used by the township but is expected to be vacated late this year or early next year when the township’s new municipal building is completed across the street.
In order to accommodate a library use, the Valley Road building might require some retrofitting work and fire sprinkler installation as well as the moving of district school buses off site to provide enough patron parking, Mr. Levine said.
Should the Valley Road building prove too costly for a temporary library, the trustees are exploring the possibility of renting space at the Princeton Shopping Center, he said.
An agreement with Public Service Electric & Gas Co. has not yet been formally resolved by the borough, township and library over the environmental remediation of the library site.
The borough has made great progress toward obtaining an easement around the PSE&G-owned electric power substation located behind the library site, which would allow for access to the new library from Wiggins Street as well as replacing spaces from the Park & Shop lot that would be lost due to construction, Princeton Borough Mayor Marvin Reed said.
The members of the two governing bodies reviewed the exterior plans of a new library and were mostly favorable regarding the concept drawings presented by Hillier. The openness created by the glass facade in the front of the building would allow pedestrians to look into the library and sense its activity while the patrons inside view the street activity. A square, glass, three-story tower forms the entrance to the library.
The Wiggins Street facade of the building would have about 12 floor-to-ceiling windows, providing views of the Princeton Cemetery and the neighboring residential streets.
The back of the building will be more open than the existing building, but with smaller windows.
The side of the building facing the Park & Shop lot also has some floor-to-ceiling windows, but that design is flexible if the borough moves forward with development of the parking lot.
There is also a frieze, or a decorative horizontal band, between the second and third stories to provide definition to the facade.
Also, the plans call for a third-floor outdoor terrace overlooking Witherspoon Street.
A plaza, reminiscent of the one near the Mediterra restaurant on Hulfish Street, is envisioned near the entrance to the library on what is now a portion of sidewalk of Witherspoon Street and some of the Park & Shop lot.
Elected officials at Monday’s meeting called the concept design "warm," "inviting" and "homey."
Some, however, voiced concerns about how a facade of mostly glass facing west would contend with sunlight.
Architects from Hillier admitted more work needs to be done in working out the solution but different glass textures as well as some sun-shading devices could lessen the sun’s impact.
Alan Hegedus, a borough resident and former Republican candidate for Borough Council, questioned whether taxpayers could afford a building that he estimated could rise in cost to the $20-plus million range.
Mr. Levine disagreed with Mr. Hegedus’ assessment and said the estimated $17.5 million cost of the proposed library was in line with what communities similar to the Princetons have spent for public libraries.
Delaying the project would only increase the cost, said Princeton Township Mayor Phyllis Marchand added.
Robert Geddes, a noted architect and professor of architecture at Princeton University, who represented a group of interested local citizens, urged the two groups of elected officials to keep the new library at its existing site, to approve a parking garage, and to add a new public square next to the library.
Also, the group believes the municipalities should do whatever possible to remove the PSE&G power substation from the rear of the library site.
Mayor Reed said that scenario would be discussed with the borough’s consultant for the future of the Park & Shop and Tulane Street parking lots, but the cost to remove the power substation and move all the heavy power cables could cost upwards of $20 million.