Cambridge Public Library | |
Location | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
---|---|
Coordinates | 42°22′26.8″N71°06′38.9″W / 42.374111°N 71.110806°W |
Built | 1888 |
Architect | Van Brunt & Howe (1888) William Rawn Associates (2009) |
Architectural style | Romanesque |
MPS | Cambridge MRA |
NRHP reference No. | 82001931 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 13, 1982 |
The Cambridge Public Library (CPL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts consists of a unified city-wide system maintaining: a main branch, of notable aesthetic architectural value, [2] [3] [4] plus a further six localized branches sited throughout the city. [5] Having evolved from the Cambridge Athenaeum, the main library branch was built at its present site in 1888. The main library most recently underwent renovation, and a modern building addition significantly expanded the overall branch in 2009. Thus, it greatly increased the branch's area, more than tripling its square footage. [6] [7]
At current the library system holds more than 314,607 items [8] where in addition to traditional library services, the Cambridge Public Library provides services such as e-books, audiobooks, tax preparation, large print, films, music, graphic novels, online resources, newspapers, magazines and educational programs among others. [9] The library provides city-wide delivery services to homebound residents of Cambridge. [10]
The Cambridge Public Library developed out of the Cambridge Athenaeum, which was founded in 1849 as "a lyceum, public library, and reading room with a building on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Pleasant Street where Cambridge residents could borrow books at the cost of one dollar per year. [11]
The City of Cambridge acquired the Cambridge Athenaeum in 1858 and renamed it the Dana Library for use as both a city hall and a public library. By 1866, the Library moved to the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Temple Street. In 1874, the library became free to the public and was renamed the Cambridge Public. Through the philanthropic endeavors of Frederick H. Rindge (and the Rindge Family), the main branch of the Cambridge Public Library was subsequently moved to the Mid-Cambridge neighborhood where it was built in 1888 at 449 Broadway.
In 2020 the CPL sought to partially fund the establishment of the Community based - Cambridge Public Library STEAM Academy. [12] [13]
The main library of the Cambridge Public Library consists of two buildings at 449 Broadway. The Van Brunt & Howe portion is a historic library building. It was built in 1888 with land and full construction funding donated by Frederick H. Rindge, a Cambridge native and philanthropist. Its Richardsonian Romanesque design was by Van Brunt & Howe. In the late 1960s, a more contemporary addition of plain brick exterior was created at the rear of the main library. [14] The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The newly expanded building consists of a $90 million expansion and renovation of the earlier library, led by the Boston architectural firms William Rawn Associates and Ann Beha Architects. The expanded library opened on November 8, 2009. [15] The new addition more than tripled the square footage of the building and is the first building in the US to make use of European Double-Skin Curtainwall technology. Architectural drawings and construction photos are available here. During most of the construction, the library collection had been relocated to the former Longfellow School building. [16]
In 2010 the main library received a LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. [17]
The surrounding park and lawn grounds of the Joan Lorentz Park found at the main building is a popular meeting place for various interest groups, including pickup soccer, slacklining, book and religious study groups, casual picnics, and the traditional practice of various martial and therapeutic arts. The main library and surrounding park sit at a top of a 70-car underground parking garage. [18]
Prior to the renovation of the main library, the library was home to a scale model of the planet Saturn in the Boston Museum of Science's community-wide Solar System model. [19] Saturn was located just outside the portion of the building that housed the old stacks, roughly where the computer workstation sign-in table is currently located. The Saturn model was packed up and shipped back to the Museum of Science and was not positioned at the reopened renovated library. [20] Other locations in Cambridge that still have models in the historic nine planet series are the Royal Sonesta Hotel (home of Earth) and the CambridgeSide mall (home of Mars).
There are a further six smaller neighborhood branch libraries around the City of Cambridge:
The library system is governed by a board of trustees consisting of six volunteer trustees acting as community representative members appointed by the Cambridge City Manager. [21] Meetings of the board are open to the public. [22] The day-to-day oversight is by the Director of Libraries, who is supported further by managers at the separate neighborhood branches.
The system is funded primarily through property taxes as a department of the City of Cambridge, and receives additional support from the Cambridge Public Library Foundation and Friends of the Cambridge Public Library. [23]
In fiscal year 2014, the city of Cambridge spent 1.63% ($7,064,381) of its city budget towards the library, amounting $66 per person. [24]
As of 2023 card holders are offered extensive online resources. [25]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2023) |
Award | Bestowing Organization |
2015 National Honor Award for Architecture | American Institute of Architects (AIA) |
2012 CNU Charter Award | Congress for the New Urbanism |
2010 Harleston Parker Medal (photos of the award ceremony) | Boston Society of Architects |
2010 Honor Award for Design Excellence | Boston Society of Architects |
2010 Award for Interior Design/Interior Architecture | Boston Society of Architects |
2010 Honor Award for Design Excellence | AIA New England |
2010 Annual Design Review Award | ARCHITECT Magazine |
2010 Preservation Award | Massachusetts Historical Commission |
2010 Integrated Design/Integrated Development Award (IDID) for Excellence in Sustainable Design | New Hampshire AIA |
2010 AGC Aon Build America Award | Associated General Contractors of America |
One of the 10 Best Boston-Area Buildings of the Decade (2000-2010) | Boston Herald |
2010 Library Design Showcase | American Libraries Magazine |
2010 Citation for Innovative Envelope System | Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC) – Beyond Green High-Performance Building Awards |
Academic and research library memberships for Cambridge Public Library include:
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the most populous city in the county, the fourth-largest in Massachusetts behind Boston, Worcester, and Springfield, and ninth-most populous in New England. The city was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England, which was an important center of the Puritan theology that was embraced by the town's founders.
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth, meaning all adult residents of the state are entitled to borrowing and research privileges, and the library receives state funding. The Boston Public Library contains approximately 24 million items, making it the third-largest public library in the United States behind the federal Library of Congress and New York Public Library, which is also privately endowed. This building was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 2000.
Kendall Square is a neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The square itself is at the intersection of Main Street and Broadway. It also refers to the broad business district east of Portland Street, northwest of the Charles River, north of MIT and south of Binney Street.
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The Boston Athenaeum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. It is also one of a number of membership libraries, for which patrons pay a yearly subscription fee to use Athenaeum services. The institution was founded in 1807 by the Anthology Club of Boston, Massachusetts. It is located at 10½ Beacon Street on Beacon Hill.
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The Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, also known as "CRLS" or "Rindge", is a public high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is a part of the Cambridge Public School District. In 1977, two separate schools, Rindge Technical School and Cambridge High and Latin School, merged to form the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. The newly built high school at the time increased its capacity to more than 2,000 students in all four grades.
Alewife Brook Reservation is a Massachusetts state park and urban wild located in Cambridge, Arlington, and Somerville. The park is managed by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation and was established in 1900. It is named for Alewife Brook, which was also historically known as Menotomy River, a tributary of the Mystic River.
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The Scottsdale Public Library is the public library system for Scottsdale, Arizona, and is owned and operated by the City of Scottsdale. As of 2023 the library system serves Scottsdale’s 226,918 residents, residents of Maricopa County, and numerous visitors from around the world. The library’s collection contains over 800,000 items. The library circulates around 2.9 million items per year. The library is a member of the Urban Libraries Council.
The Central Library is the main branch of the Somerville, Massachusetts, public library system. It is an architecturally distinguished Renaissance Revival brick building designed by Edward Lippincott Tilton and was built in 1914 with funding assistance from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The West Somerville Branch Library is a historic library at 40 College Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts, just outside Davis Square. It is an example of Classical Revival architecture, built in 1909 with funding support from Andrew Carnegie, and was the city's first branch library. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Mid-Cambridge, also known as "Area 6", is a neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is bounded by Massachusetts Avenue on the south and west, Prospect Street on the east, and Hampshire Street, the Somerville border, Kirkland Street, Quincy Street, and Cambridge Street on the north. The neighborhood borders Central Square, Harvard Square, and Inman Square.
In historic preservation, sustainable preservation is the idea that preservation has tangible ecological benefits, on the basis that the most sustainable building is one that is already built. Historic buildings can have advantages over new construction with their often central location, historic building materials, and unique characteristics of craftsmanship. Arguing for these connections is at least partially an outgrowth of the green building movement with its emphasis on new construction. Sustainable preservation borrows many of the same principles of sustainable architecture, though is unique by focusing on older buildings versus new construction. The term "sustainable preservation" is also utilized to refer to the preservation of global heritage, archaeological and historic sites through the creation of economically sustainable businesses which support such preservation, such as the Sustainable Preservation Initiative and the Global Heritage Fund.
Mount Auburn Hospital (MAH) is a community hospital with a patient capacity of about 200 beds in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its main campus is located at 330 Mount Auburn St, in the neighborhood of West Cambridge. It has become an affiliated teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.
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Cambridge Discovery Park, formerly known as Acorn Park, is a 30 acres (12 ha) office and laboratory campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is located along Massachusetts Route 2, and is connected to the Alewife Red Line subway terminus and bus station by a walking path, and to the Minuteman Bikeway.
Sumbul Siddiqui is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 77th mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Siddiqui was elected mayor in 2020 by the Cambridge City Council, after serving in the body for three years. She succeeded Marc C. McGovern in January 2020, becoming the first Muslim mayor in Massachusetts history.
Joan Lorentz Park is a green space in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. It is located at 441 Broadway, adjacent to the main branch of the Cambridge Public Library and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. It contains a fenced playground and tennis courts with pickleball markings. It is 2.9 acres (12,000 m2) large. The park contains at least 22 tree species.
This project was chosen as a 2015 recipient of the Institute Honor Awards for Architecture.
The Boston Society of Architects/AIA announced the winner of the 2010 Harleston Parker Medal as the Cambridge Public Library
New England Architecture Awards
The Cambridge Public Library's diverse collection informs, educates, stimulates, entertains, and relaxes the spirit and reflects the unique character of our community. Items are available in many formats, including e-books, audiobooks, large print, films, music, graphic novels, online resources, newspapers, and magazines.
The Cambridge STEAM Initiative is a joint venture between the City of Cambridge Department of Human Service Programs, Cambridge Public School Department, and the Cambridge Public Library. STEAM is an integrated approach to learning that incorporates STEAM Habits of Mind using any combination of STEAM areas of study - Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math - as access points for inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking.
LEED BD+C: New Constructionv2 - LEED 2.2 -- Certification type: LEED-NC 2.2; Level: Silver; Points: 35; Certification date: December 13, 2010
The Saturn model was brought back to the Museum of Science when the Cambridge library closed, and is currently in storage. Since the Saturn and Neptune models are not available, we revised the Community Solar System passport to give credit for those planets.