Vital Expansions
Separate -- and don't scrimp on -- Riverside library, museum projects
08:14 PM PDT on Sunday, June 8, 2008
By DOUG SHACKELTON
Riverside faces a crucial decision with the expansion of the main library and Metropolitan Museum.
This decision will define what kind of city this will be for decades to come. Does Riverside want to be the City of Arts and Culture? The Capital of the Inland Empire? A world-class city? Does Riverside value the quality of services that must be provided to its residents in future decades?
If the answer to these questions is yes -- as we believe it should be -- then the proposed $25 million, 45,000-square-foot joint-use project fails.
Both the library and the museum have been operating in their current facilities since the mid-1960s, when Riverside's population was about 100,000. This alone justifies expansion.
Moreover, citizen groups, the boards of both the library and museum, and several recent studies by experts all conclude that a major expansion is needed for both facilities. The library board of trustees suggests that 62,524 square feet be added to the main library. The 2006 museum site-selection survey shows that a three-story museum addition can be built on the adjacent parking lot.
The needs of our residents -- not the arbitrary $25 million Renaissance funding figure -- should dictate these expansions. We believe that both institutions should remain on their existing sites, contributing to the historic fabric of downtown.
Seeding Conflict
The library can be expanded to the front with a 20,000-square-foot footprint (a basement and two stories), for a 60,000-square-foot addition. This would leave a sizable setback on Mission Inn Avenue so as to keep in place the Chinese Pavilion and not block the view of the Mission Inn.
The museum should continue as an urban museum and be expanded by at least 30,000 square feet.
Joint use is not the solution because neither institution would be able to adequately deliver needed services to a population of 300,000. Joint use unnecessarily sets up the potential for conflict in the future.
Furthermore, across the nation joint use is not the norm. There are few library-museum facilities, and none appears to be on the scale of that proposed in Riverside. Even the oft-cited Cerritos facility is not a true joint-use facility.
Using the supportable cost figure of $425 per square foot, a 60,000-square-foot library expansion and a 30,000-square-foot museum expansion would require an increase of $13.3 million over the $25 million allocated in the proposed project.
The question is not whether we can afford this increase, but rather whether we can afford to not do this if we want the highest standard of library and museum services for Riverside for generations.
For guidance, Riverside should look to the Bowers Museum of Art in Santa Ana and to Fontana's new main library.
Tapping Potential
Twenty years ago, the Bowers was a small city museum in need of support and expansion. Santa Ana provided major funding to get the expansion under way, and today the Bowers is internationally renowned. Riverside's museum has similar potential.
In Fontana, the city decided that its 190,000 residents needed a 93,000-square-foot main library at a cost of $60 million.
Riverside's parking debate should neither confuse nor delay the decision to expand our two vital institutions.
Riverside should create public parking through redevelopment of the city-owned land on Mission Inn Avenue between Lime and Lemon streets. This will serve not only the expanded library and museum facilities but also the Riverside Municipal Auditorium and the art museum.
In summary, the Raincross Group rejects the concept of joint use and urges the task force, mayor and City Council to approve the following building recommendations:
A minimum 30,000-square-foot expansion of the Metropolitan Museum.
A two-story (with basement), 60,000-square-foot expansion of the Main Library in front of the existing building.
An increase of the proposed $25.5 million spending plan to $38.3 million, with the funds to come from the downtown Renaissance program and resident support.
The development of public parking on Mission Inn Avenue between Lemon and Lime streets.
Doug Shackelton is chairman of the Raincross Group's library and museum committee and a former executive director of the Riverside Redevelopment Agency. The Raincross Group is an association of community leaders that works to develop consensus on significant issues concerning Riverside.
