CASTLE PINES —There was a festive atmosphere in the air when officials and staff hauled books and equipment out of the district’s 2,300-square-foot Castle Pines home down the block into its new $6.5 million, 16,000-square-foot digs.
A patch of grass just 10 months ago, the new branch at 360 Village Square Lane will host a public celebration when it opens to the public for the first time at 10 a.m. today. It is the first of three branch buildings Douglas County Libraries will unveil this year after first .
“Beyond exciting,” was how district director Bob Pasicznyuk described moving into the new space. “You really have to see the first child, the first grandparent in the space to really get what you’re looking for, but the dream of what we can do with the community here is beyond exciting.”
The building embodies some themes the district had in mind during its design process, Pasicznyuk said: generous, open family spaces; abundant public area — most notably a large rooftop patio with a fireplace and mountain views on the second floor; and opportunities for portable technology use.
The library features a self-checkout laptop vending machine and wireless connectivity for audio-visual equipment in its meeting and study rooms.
The children’s area upstairs, with an interactive light wall and other play features, is offset by a quieter adult section on the main level. Between them, they house a collection 40 percent larger than the old branch, officials said.
There is so much public space, spokeswoman Nanci Marr said, the district is looking to hire an event planner to coordinate and help with bookings.
About 2,500 square feet of the library is occupied by city offices. The city donated the land and was granted a very favorable lease rate to operate out of the library for at least the next 10 years, City Manager Don Van Wormer said.
“It’s much more conducive to doing city business,” Van Wormer said.
The new offices are more private and the library can accommodate on-site city courts and City Council and planning commission meetings, Van Wormer said. He hopes the activity the library brings to the area will .
The district’s new Lone Tree branch is set to open in early July. It will be 25,000 square feet, more than twice as big as that city’s library now. The Parker branch, set to open in August, will be 40,000 square feet, up from the current building’s 22,000 square feet.
All told, the three branches cost an estimated $34.5 million, a third of which came from borrowing and financing and the rest from the district’s savings, officials said.
This week isn’t the end of the line for the original Castle Pines branch, located in an office building next door to the new space. It will be kept as a storage and staging space while the district moves in in Lone Tree and Parker, officials said.
Castle Pines branch manager Aspen Walker fondly remembered how the community rallied to bring the tiny library to town. After two failed bond measures, residents put on pancake breakfasts, spare change drives and other events to help raise money to rent the space in 2011. Her staff will now have offices roughly the size of the entire old library. Walker said she is very glad the district was able to bring two essential amenities to a growing Castle Pines: a full-service library and a City Hall.
“We wanted to surprise and delight people,” Walker said of the library’s unique features and adaptable public space. “We’re very excited to be moving into a new branch that will better meet the needs of our community now and in the future.”
Joe Rubino: 303-954-2953, jrubino@denverpost.com or @RubinoJC
