Brand new in 1984, the Park Grove Library is now several decades old. As such, it’s time for a redesign.
Commissioned by Washington County and Alliiance Architects and hosted by Juxtaposition Arts, a community feedback event was held March 29 at Park Grove Library, located at 7900 Hemingway Avenue South behind the Grove80 Apartments. Tucked snugly between multistory apartments with a paneled drop ceiling and a large skylight dating to 1984, the current library is around 20,000 square feet on a 2.5 acre building site. The redesign would seek to build within this reality and improve library services to make the location better.
“We’ll take what we get today and start synthesizing it together,” Qadiym Washington with Juxtaposition Arts said of the community feedback event and Park Grove Library redesign. “I’d say by fall we’ll start to have some schematic ideas.”
Questions included in the March 29 event included “what do you wish the library had or felt like?” as well as “what spaces do you wish existed in Cottage Grove?” Also included were questions like “what would make a young person want to come here?” and “what do you love or need in day-to-day life?”
Event participants were encouraged to dream big and make use of building exercises to come up with ideas.
Current library offerings offerings at Park Grove Library include books, dvds, video games, newspapers, cds, magazines, computers, audiobooks, self checkout, a library book sale corner and a community food pantry.
Included in the redesign plans are several project goals to consider, including the following:
1) Responsive Design: Provide a library that reflects the surrounding community’s needs, including accessibility improvements for community members who live and attend school nearby.
2) Welcoming Spaces: Create flexible and inclusive spaces for library services, events, and technology. 
3) Fiscal Responsibility: Provide Washington County with the highest value for its budget and maintain fiscal responsibility within its long-range financial plan.
4) Sustainability: Design a facility emphasizing energy efficiency, sustainability, and well-being, and
5) Employee Support: Provide workspaces and technology that support employee engagement, safety, and well-being. 
County public works library project manager Mandy Leonard shared more on the redesign moving forward.
“We are just super excited about this project,” she said. “We can’t wait to provide a more amazing space and accommodate some of the needs that have been missing here.” A new engagement is planned for the fall as plans coalesce further, with design to finish this year and bidding for construction to start in 2026. If all goes well the project and construction should complete by February 2027.
Have an idea to improve the library but couldn’t make March 29?
There’s still a chance to give feedback. Readers can head on over to fill out a brief questionnaire on the Park Grove library website at www.surveymonkey.com/r/VSTPYZL. Don’t have internet access?
The library can help with that.