Duluth's ore boat-styled library could see redesign, new building

DULUTH — Duluth's ore boat-like modernist library, one of the first buildings seen driving into downtown from the south, is slated for a major makeover.

Duluth Mayor Emily Larson laid out plans Wednesday that could culminate in either a renovation of the 43-year-old gray structure or a new building in the block-long space.

"We are open to all of it," she said in a news conference.

The City Council will vote on measures this week that include paying for half of community engagement and pre-design work and contracts with businesses to carry those efforts out. The Duluth Library Foundation has volunteered the other half of those costs, at $150,000.

A key aspect to the redesign would be shifting the city's workforce development program to the library, making the building more multi-purpose. The move opens new state and federal funding avenues to the city, along with bolstering staff and space.

"With this project, Duluth is joining a national trend expanding what a library can do," said workforce development director Elena Foshay.

Locating the workforce program in a "trusted space" like the library would make it more accessible, offer more meeting rooms, access to toys and books for families who use its services and a combined computer lab with more staff, she said, allowing them to reach more people who need employment services.

The city has talked about updating or replacing its downtown library for nearly a decade.

"For years, we've been trying to work out the puzzle of how to fund a needed renovation for the main library," library manager Carla Powers said. "Now, we have a viable path forward."

She said the long and narrow building is inefficient and can be hard to navigate, and ideally a redone library would be more intuitive to use.

Erin Kreeger, executive director of the Duluth Library Foundation, works at the main library and still gets lost, she said. She's looking forward to a plan that would "inspire creativity" and find new ways to get youth interested in learning.

Duluth's first official library opened in 1890, but a still-standing downtown Carnegie brownstone built in 1902 served patrons the longest. The current library, cantilevered over a public space where outdoor performances are often held and food trucks set up shop, was designed by architect Gunnar Birkerts, who also designed the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis.

Duluth's library system has about 40,000 active cardholders. In 2022, more than 402,000 items were checked out between print and digital items via the main library and its two branches, and there were more than 260,000 visits to the three libraries. While more items were checked out in 2021, the number of visits nearly doubled in 2022. Powers said usage of the libraries is still climbing back after "taking a severe hit" from the pandemic. The libraries were closed for much of 2020 and into 2021.

Larson said federal American Rescue Plan money and earmarks are available for funding such a space, and the city would likely make a bonding request for the 2024 Legislative session. Minutes from a special library board meeting in December indicate the city could apply for $20 million in state bonding and find another $20 million through fundraising, federal coronavirus relief money and redirecting facility operating savings to city debt.

Larson said she wants plenty of community feedback on what a redone library should look like and offer, and asks Duluth residents to weigh in as the city reaches out.

"We have site control over this entire block," Larson said, "and it's an amazing asset."