Plans to remodel the children’s section at the Burton Barr Public Library were presented to the Parks, Arts, Education and Equality Subcommittee at City Hall Wednesday morning.
The remodel plans include changes to five different areas within the library’s children’s section with an estimated cost of $2.88 million. Kelly Bushong, executive director of the Phoenix Public Library Foundation, said the project will be privately funded. This will be the first remodel to the children’s section in 22 years, since the Burton Barr branch was opened in 1995, according to the Phoenix Public Library’s website.
The remodel will include tablets that can be checked out, an informal story space area where puppet shows, author presentations and librarian-led storytimes will be held and an expanded garden, City Librarian Rita Hamilton said.
It will also include a “mini-maker space” to encourage interaction with the concepts of science, technology, engineering and math, and a revamped “first five years” area for the library’s youngest patrons. One of the goals of the remodel is to make the children’s area as interactive as possible; the “mini-maker space” will have over 100 different interactive components alone, Hamilton said.
“I think it’s a great value for the community,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said that nearly a million people visit the Burton Barr branch every year, and around 40 percent of them are children.
Rashaad Peoples, father to a young boy named Elijah, said he goes to the library at least once a week. Elijah has participated in a robotics class and an “old school games” class offered through the library, he said. He hoped the remodel will come with a tutoring center for the younger students like Elijah.
Elijah, 8, on the other hand, disagreed with his father and wanted both readers and City Council members to know he would love a drawing center with coloring supplies and coloring pages. He said he would also settle for a basketball court.
Will Bruder, the head architect in charge of the proposed remodel, said the remodel will double the capacity of the outdoor area so that the garden can accommodate a school bus full of children.
“The plans are flexible, they’re interchangeable and they should be able to be accomplished with great economy,” Bruder said.
Another parent that frequents the library weekly, Colleen Bolick, said that she likes going to different branches, but that the outdoor area, along with the open floor plan and stroller-friendly bathrooms, makes Burton Barr stand out.
She hopes her children, Ridley, 4, and Madelyn, 7 months, will be able to use technology geared toward their age groups after the remodel is complete. Once the technology is implemented, she said she may switch her weekly outings to the Burton Barr branch.
The next step for the remodel proposal is to “prepare to conduct the capital campaign,” Hamilton said. For more information on the proposal, contact Lee Franklin, the community relations manager for the Phoenix Public Library.
Contact the reporter at rachel.banks@asu.edu.
