Government

Town Funding Bodies To Vote Next Month on Support for New Canaan Library Rebuilding Plan

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The town’s two major funding bodies will vote next month on a proposal to help kickstart a capital campaign for a widely anticipated rebuild of New Canaan Library, officials say. Conceived by town officials and introduced at public meetings in June, the allocation would help the library acquire a key .19-acre property on its block. Though formal agendas have not yet been finalized, the Board of Finance is expected to vote on the measure at its Sept. 13 meeting, with the Town Council to follow on Sept. 21, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said.

Around Town

New Canaan Library Forms Capital Campaign Committee for New Facility

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Library officials say they’ve taken a big step toward fundraising for a widely anticipated rebuilt facility by forming a capital campaign committee. Even before formally launching the campaign, two local donors have generously given $250,000 to get the library going, Director Lisa Oldham said. Working within a budget of about $25 million—that’s how much the library can expect to raise, according to a feasibility study completed in the fall—the new building will approximately double the facility’s usable space. As it is now, about one-third of the approximately 37,000-square-foot library is unusable, Oldham said. “And that’s a really big deal for parents and children,” she said.

Around Town

Study: New Canaan Library Can Raise $25 Million for Rebuilding Project

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New Canaan Library can expect to raise $25 million for its renovation project, officials said Wednesday, and the new facility is expected nearly to double the amount of current usable space. Though that figure—supplied in a fundraising feasibility study completed this summer—is short of what would be needed to realize early-stage renderings of a $37 million building, library officials had suspected that would be the case and are prepared to re-engage Connecticut-based Centerbrook Architects to “ask them to revise the plans and give us drawings and a conceptual framework of the best building that we can get on our existing footprint for $25 million,” Board of Trustees President Christian Le Bris said during the regular meeting of the Town Council. “And what we suspect will happen is that we will have the same quality building but it will be smaller,” Le Bris said during the meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. The discussion arose during a presentation from Director Lisa Oldham about ways the library has reorganized staff, such as by creating a Readers’ Advisor role, expanded technology offerings, launched new programming, refreshed its layout and otherwise modernized and tailored itself to a future facility. Just two-thirds or so of the current, 37,000-square-foot building is usable, Oldham said.

Around Town

Rebuilt Library To Feature Modern Architecture, New Parking

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A rebuilt New Canaan Library could feature modern architecture in a space that’s more flexible, parking that’s carved into the slope at Maple and Main Streets and preserve a traditional look for an area dedicated to events and meeting spaces, officials said Tuesday. A major piece of the planned new facility will include a design that can incorporate emerging technologies, Board of Trustees President Christian Le Bris said during an interview just after the library’s annual meeting. “That part of the library could be fairly modern-looking and track into the [mid-century] modern architecture idea that is around New Canaan,” Le Bris said after the meeting, held in the Adrian Lamb Room. “There are a lot of well-known buildings in town, so it would be tapping into that kind of idea.”

The comments come as the board—now that it has an idea how much money it reasonably can expect to raise for a new facility—works on a timetable for the widely anticipated project’s fundraising campaign. “Barring a derailment of some kind, at some point we need to have some schematics, drawings and designs that we can share with the town,” Le Bris said.