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Residents check out library plans Design process beginning for Medford project By Jill Briskey A coffee shop and bookstore, indoor garden spaces and a 128-space parking lot all could be part of Medford�s new library. About 20 residents heard about those potential features and others Thursday in a public meeting with architects at the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater. "We�ve been waiting a long time for this, 25 years," said Scott Rayburn, chair of the Jackson County Library Advisory Committee. "Let�s do it right." Construction of the two-story facility is tentatively slated for the spring of 2002, and plans are already well under way, said Troy Ainsworth, an architect from the Portland firm Fletcher Farr Ayotte. The proposed 78,400-foot structure will cover a city block bounded by South Central Avenue, East 10th Street, South Riverside Avenue and East Ninth Street. The new library will be paid for with funds from a $38.9 million countywide bond levy approved by voters in May. Medford has been allotted $18,954,000 for its library. Medford Urban Renewal Agency will contribute $9 million for street and parking improvements. The Jackson County Library Foundation is in the process of purchasing the library property, Rayburn said. Planners told the crowd that the building will accommodate the city�s projected growth for the next 25 years and stand strong for over a century. Rogue Community College will lease part of the upstairs for its own library. "Right now, we�re pretty much at the beginning of the whole design process," Ainsworth said. "We�re getting ready to put our nose and pencils to the grindstone and get the schematic design done." The design plans, which are still flexible, include one large and two small public meeting rooms, an outdoor plaza, a coffee shop, bookstore and outdoor gardens within the building. The library parking lot will be at the corner of Riverside and 10th. "The idea is that you feel like you really want to use this building," added Jeff Schnabel, a planner from the firm. "The idea here is that there is a lot of interest. You want it to feel pleasant for pedestrians." Residents raised concerns about everything from internal design to heating to the style of the roof, which will be visible from Interstate 5. Gayle Clason, a member of the Jackson County Library Foundation and Friends of the Library, said she�s concerned that smokers will loiter in front of the new structure. "We don�t want to have cigarette butts all over the sidewalk," Clason said. "We�ve worked too hard to get this library to have the smokers ruin it for us." The architects hope to incorporate residents� concerns and ideas into the next batch of schematic designs. A public meeting with more detailed plans for the library is slated for May. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.