Reading Rooms for Modernists - Page 2

Open plans, cool details and gardens turn mid-century libraries into real attractions
By Dave Weinstein
CA-Modern Insider
Although Pacific Grove's striking library opened in 1908 in a Mission style, it was enlarged and remodeled in the 1950s, and again in 1978, to create an artful blend of modernism and tradition. Photo: Dave Weinstein

Eichler himself never built a library, but the firm of Jones & Emmons, who designed so many Eichler homes, did: the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA. If you visit, make an appointment at the archive there to peruse the A. Quincy Jones collection.

Throughout the Bay Area and beyond are beautiful examples of intact, or mostly intact, mid-century modern libraries.

 

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Mill Valley's library blends tradition with modernity, evoking the Arts and Crafts warmth of Berkeley architect Bernard Maybeck. Architects Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons, a leading Bay Area modernist firm in the mid-century, harked back to Maybeck on other of their projects. Photo: Dave Weinstein
  

Both Modesto and Stockton have impressive, classically inspired modernist temples to literature. Stockton's, like so many other modern libraries, is enlivened with art, some of it integral to the building. Stockton's decor includes mosaic murals by artist Jean Varda.

Another variant of modernism found in Northern California libraries blends vernacular architecture and the woodsy Bay Area Tradition. Ernest Kump's library in Los Altos is one such. The rustic Mill Valley library shows a touch of Berkeley Craftsman architect Bernard Maybeck.

 

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Even smaller communities benefit from having progressively designed libraries, including, as above, the Contra Costa town of Pinole. John Hans Ostwald and E. Paul Kelly designed this library and several others in the 1960s.The Pinole library has original mosaics by artist Emmy Lou Packard. Photo: Dave Weinstein
  

And in Pacific Grove's library, with its tiled roof, arches, and arcades, one may detect a whiff of a California Mission. Pinole's compact library, by Ostwald and Kelly, with a low pyramidal roof, has lovely mosaic murals by Emmy Lou Packard.

Among the best local modern libraries are two in Palo Alto. Both libraries—the Downtown Library, half hidden on its garden behind stucco walls that feel Spanish Colonial; and the glass-walled Rinconada Library, behind a wall of decorative concrete breezeblocks—seem removed from the rest of the world.

Both Palo Alto libraries are fully integrated with gardens that occupy both ends of each building. The Rinconada branch even has additional atrium-like courtyards. The downtown branch, from 1971, was designed by William Busse; the Rinconada, from 1958, by Edward Durrell Stone.

 

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Among modern libraries that incorporate modern art is Stockton's Cesar Chavez Central Library, from 1964. The above mosaic, by Sausalito artist Jean Varda, is on display there. Photo: Dave Weinstein
  

Much as people loved the West Orange library in South San Francisco, which served for its career as the town's main library, it closed in 2023. The auditorium was too small for events, director Valerie Sommer says. The building was not seismically sound, it was hard to wire for computers, and the minuscule elevator was not accessible for the disabled.

The local Boys and Girls Clubs will move into the West Orange site for a few years while the city seeks a permanent tenant.

Cheryl Grantana Rich does not regret the change in use. But, she says, "It is an interesting building. I'd feel bad if it disappeared."