New Rose Lane library halfway built, with an April 2026 opening in sight
Public Works Director Julian Skinner walked the Library Board through construction progress on the new Larkspur Library at the Commons on Rose Lane, where contractor Alton Construction is about six months into a 12-month schedule under a building permit issued in March 2025. Contractor completion is projected for March 2026.
“Let's just find a way to do something with them that's meaningful and not put them in the room that's closed off and you have to go dig them out.”— a board member, on the old library's stained glass
Skinner's presentation covered floor plans, stack heights — movable stacks at roughly 59.5 inches, wall stacks up to eight feet — and sustainability features: eight EV charging stations at opening, with wiring in place for eight more, rooftop solar sized to offset the building's electricity use, and a separate battery-backed solar array so the building can serve as a clean-air center during outages. Total project cost is about $17.5 million, paid from library grants, the Commons Foundation, Measure G/C funds and general fund reserve. A separate parking lot on the "sliver parcel" across Rose Lane, awarded to Bowman Landscape, will be used mainly for staff parking.
The thornier question was what to carry over from 400 Magnolia Avenue. The old library's stained glass has a following — Library Foundation representative Sean Sullivan said there is strong sentiment for incorporating it into the new building — but the architect and contractor advised against installing the aging glass as structural windows, recommending instead that the panels be treated as historic artifacts for display in unprogrammed wall space.
A historic structures report on the Magnolia building is complete, and the city has scheduled community workshops on the building's future for Sept. 15 and Oct. 7. Who pays for that renovation, staff acknowledged, is an expensive question that remains unresolved.