Aaron LaTourette

Selectmen Call for Cost Breakdown on Library’s ‘Legacy Building’ Project

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday called for a cost breakdown of the estimated $1.5 million that New Canaan Library officials have said they need now in order to move and secure the original 1913 library within their downtown campus next spring. In a similar presentation to one they’d made to the Board of Finance last month, library officials told the selectmen that fundraising and construction for a new approximately $40 million facility are going very well. It’s on track to open to the public Feb. 1, 2023, according to library Board of Trustees member Ian Hobbs and Executive Director Lisa Oldham. Yet a separate preservation project approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission in December, to relocate the 1,200-square-foot, “legacy” building about 80 feet to the western property line—making space for a planned green—will cost about $2.5 million all-in, Hobbs and Oldham said.

Around Town

Coffee’s on for Thursday

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Join fellow residents, business owners and NewCanaanite.com editor Michael Dinan for the monthly Community Coffee, to be held 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Thursday, May 5 in the Art Gallery on the main floor of New Canaan Library. (Please use the entrance overlooking Main and Cherry Streets, pictured below.)

The free, public coffee is a group conversation about what’s happening around town, moderated by Dinan. It’s presented in partnership with the library, and this month we will serve Green & Tonic coffee (thank you, everyone at Green & Tonic). Topics come from attendees. Those who would like to receive a friendly reminder email about the coffee—held the first Thursday of each month—should email Dinan at editor@newcanaanite.com.

Around Town

New Canaan Library: $1.5 Million Needed Now to Move ‘Legacy’ Building in Time for Feb. ‘23 Opening of New Facility

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New Canaan Library officials said Tuesday that unless their organization is able to secure funding to move the original 1913 building to the western edge of its campus—as conditioned by the Planning & Zoning Commission via approvals last July and December—they could end up with two facilities, the present-day library and a new one, sitting next to each other. The library has already has raised more than $33 million toward its new approximately $40 million building, including a $10 million gift from the town, Executive Director Lisa Oldham told members of the Board of Finance at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

Yet the library sees the P&Z-approved project of preserving and moving what remains of the 1,200-square-foot 1913 or “legacy” building as a separate project, and need $1.5 million now in order for that structure to be secured on a new foundation behind the Sunoco gas station by the time the new facility opens to the public Feb. 1, 2023, Oldham said. (A further $1 million will be needed to fit out the building for use, such as by getting insulation, heat, bathrooms and plumbing in it.)

Asked by Board of Finance Chair Todd Lavieri how the library is going to get the $1.5 million, Oldham said, “That is a good question.”

“As our primary investors, our biggest investor, you will appreciate that I am full focused on fundraising the last $6.5 million for the main project,” she said. “This [new library] can’t wait for me to finish that [legacy building] job, so we need a source of funding immediately.

New Canaan Library

“Hollywood’s Embassies: How Movie Theaters Projected American Power Around the World,” Presented via New Canaan Library Webinar

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In art and entertainment, sometimes the frame, or the venue, is as impactful as what it presents. Such was the case with lavish American movie theaters of the early to mid-20th century, which seduced audiences around the world with not only Hollywood films, but with lavish movie theaters owned and operated by the major American film companies. New Canaan Library is pleased to welcome Professor Ross Melnick, University of California, Santa Barbara, as he speaks about the cultural impacts, both positive and negative, that American films and the impressive theaters they were shown in had around the globe. The live webinar will take place on Thursday, March 24 at 7 PM EST; register at newcanaanlibrary.org for Zoom sign in. In a history that stretches from Buenos Aires and Tokyo to Johannesburg and Cairo, Professor Melnick considers these movie houses as cultural embassies.

New Canaan Library

‘Inside the Squid,’ Presented by Professor Kyung H. Kim via Webinar from New Canaan Library

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New Canaan Library is pleased to welcome back Professor Kyung Hyun Kim, filmmaker, scholar, and writer, who will discuss and explore the popularity behind Netflix’s new blockbuster series, Squid Game. The talk will take place on Tuesday, November 30 at 7 PM EST. Zoom sign in information will be provided upon registration at newcanaanlibrary.org. In Korea, a particular type of comedy variety show has become quite popular in recent years. These productions typically feature a group of male performers in front of a camera in a public space, who then disperse to change into track suits and play childish playground games such as hide-and-seek, capture-the-flag, rock-paper-scissors, wordplay, and pass-the-cellphone.