By Special to the Daily Press
If you’re wondering what is going on behind the fencing at Sixth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, site of the new Main Library, you can now watch the construction from your home computer.
“It’s starting to look like a building,” assistant city librarian Greg Mullen said. A web camera on the roof of a building at Seventh Street and Santa Monica Boulevard feeds images of the project to the library’s Web site, www.smpl.org. Click on “Construction Update.”
Site excavation has been completed and construction is beginning, said Assistant City Manager Gordon Anderson. Already in place below the parking structure is a cistern to capture water runoff, to be used for irrigation. This is the first element in what architects plan to be a “green building.”
Anderson said City Hall has what is called a “guaranteed maximum price” contract with Morley Construction for $57.7 million for the library. Three hundred additional parking spaces will be funded by the Redevelopment Agency for $12.9 million. Since the costs are funded by a bond issue and one-time monies, none of this affects the current city budget deficit, Anderson said.
The project has been developing for the last 20 years, Mullen added. “The city has made a commitment on this building,” he said. “The community really wanted it, and the city responded.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 19, 2004. Read the original PDF.