Around Town

New  ’Green’ at the Library About 8 Weeks from Completion

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The widely anticipated “green” taking shape at Main and Cherry Streets is about eight weeks from completion, according to New Canaan Library Executive Director Lisa Oldham. The hardscaping of the green has been underway since the library-owned 1913 building shifted 115 feet to its new location at the western edge of the library’s privately owned property, and new footpaths along Cherry Street have been poured. “You’ll notice they’re double width, so there’s one width of footpath similar in size to what was there before, from the street inwards, and then another as deep again as that, which is where the benches will go,” Oldham told NewCanaanite.com. 

“And then seven tons of stone has been delivered for all the stone work that’s going to be done in the next month. Planting is supposed to start this week, if the weather cooperates, and they’ll be starting on the Main Street frontage. There’s a lot of shrubbery and other types of plantings that have to go in.

Around Town

New Canaan Library Director Lisa Oldham To Retire at Year’s End

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New Canaan Library’s executive director for the past decade plans to retire at the end of this year. In a message sent to library donors, Lisa Oldham said she has been “so privileged to lead the New Canaan Library through this wonderful period of change for the past ten years.”

“Thanks to your extraordinary support, by the time I depart the entire project for the Library and Green will be complete,” Oldham said in the email, sent Tuesday afternoon and obtained by NewCanaanite.com. “I am very proud of the Library, our team, and the vision you have helped us realize.”

Though the centerpiece of Oldham’s legacy is the hugely popular and well-received new library that opened in February, her achievements go far beyond the remade building and campus. Under Oldham’s leadership, the library has forged stronger relationships and partnerships with the town, local press and nonprofit and business communities, made several key hires and overhauled the organization’s programming, launching popular new series and learning experiences for patrons. Asked about Oldham’s tenure, New Canaan Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Laura Budd said, “As a wise man once said, ‘Try to leave this world a little better than you found it,’ and Lisa Oldham has certainly done that for New Canaan Library and in turn our entire community.

Around Town

1913 Library Move Expected To Start Friday; Time Capsule Unearthed

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The original New Canaan Library—a grid of steel beneath it, hovering five feet in the air—is expected to start moving Friday toward its new destination on the organization’s campus, officials say. The move likely will take a few days, meaning it could be on its new foundation next Tuesday, according to Keith Burton, project manager for Wolfe House & Building Movers. “Initially we were going to be moving it on dollies, which is a different type of move,” Burton told NewCanaanite.com. “In this case here—because of ground levels, grade levels, that sort of thing—we’re going to be using a ‘slide steel system.’ Beginning on Friday we’ll start the move off of the site. And it will be a multi-day process.

Around Town

Podcast: Moving the 1913 Library Building 

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This week on “0684-Radi0,” our free podcast (subscribe here in iTunes), we talk to New Canaan Library Executive Director Lisa Oldham about the relocation of the legacy 1913 building on the organization’s campus. Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:

Allison Rees

Local Couple Gifts $3 Million to New Canaan Library; Children’s Room Renamed

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New Canaan Library announced Monday that a local couple has donated $3 million toward the organization’s capital campaign. The library’s Children’s Room has been renamed The Rees Family Children’s Library after Michael and Allison Rees, according to a press release. Lisa Oldham, executive director of the library, said in a statement, “Michael and Allison’s generosity accompanies an exemplary fidelity to culture and civic life in New Canaan and reflects their sincere desire to make a difference. The Rees Family Children’s Library will forever reflect their exceptional vision.”

The new 42,000-square-foot library opened four months ago, about three years after officials unveiled a dramatic new plan for the organization’s block at the edge of downtown New Canaan. Awash in natural light and featuring the new Jim and Dede Bartlett Auditorium, multiple meeting rooms, an instantly popular café, heavily used teen area and spacious children’s room, the facility replaced an aging facility with a failing, costly physical plant that hadn’t seen a significant renovation in four decades.