Project Set for 2009 Opening
By Kirstin Downey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 2, 2007
The popular Westover Library, cheerful but cramped and dilapidated, is finally getting a new home.
Last month, the Arlington County Board unanimously approved a use permit for the construction of a combined library and school at the site of the nearby public Reed School, at Washington Boulevard and McKinley Road in North Arlington.
Inside Westover Library now, carts laden with books block passage into the stacks; patrons search the Web on six overused computers in a building designed before the Internet age; and carpets are torn and patched with duct tape. The building is not wheelchair accessible, and people have difficulty navigating the stairways between its three levels.
The new library will be three times as large, in a building awash with natural light and surrounded by parkland with updated playgrounds, and the 1938 facade of the Reed School will be preserved. There also will be more space for programs that operate out of the school, including a day-care program for 150 children and a preschool for 20 children with special needs. A teen parenting program will be offered as well.
The current library will be torn down, and the site will be turned into open green space.
The project will allow the county to duplicate the success of its Shirlington venture, in which it built a complex housing both the Shirlington Library and Signature Theatre.
Westover residents have waited years for the project to begin. In 1998, voters approved a bond issue that included $4 million to build a library, but the project was plagued by delays and disagreements over how to handle parking and how to preserve the 1938 facade.
"We've been discussing it for 10 years, and we're glad it is coming to a head," said Stephen Rentner, president of the Highland Park-Overlee Knolls Civic Association. "Our patience paid off, and we're glad we have a good product."
County Board Chairman Paul Ferguson (D) said: "The community, the schools and the county have gone through a long and complex process to come up with a plan that combines these two projects under a single roof. The hard work has paid off with a plan that will benefit the schools, the library and the entire community."
The school-library project is expected to cost $19.1 million, although that figure is "evolving" because the county is still soliciting bids, said Greg Emanuel, Arlington's director of engineering and capital projects. He said he expects construction to end by summer 2009.
"We're on track, on budget and on schedule," Emanuel said.
Some area residents have questioned why a project budgeted at $4 million will cost so much more. Officials said the price tag has climbed because the project has grown and construction costs have risen during the past decade while residents and planners have discussed what the building should look like.
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