In what looks like a win-win situation for two stalwart Berkeley institutions, a building owned by the Judah L. Magnes Museum will serve as a temporary home for the city’s main library.
The 68-year-old building on Kittredge Street in downtown Berkeley that serves as the library’s permanent home has been in need of renovation for some time. But library officials were worried that they would not be able to find a space large enough to accommodate the collection during the two years it would take to finish the job.
Enter the Magnes Museum, which in November spent more than $2 million for a two-story building at 2121 Allston Way, around the corner from the library. Eventually, the museum plans to use the former printing plant to house spillover from its current site on Russell Street. The additional site is expected to accommodate nine galleries, the Western Jewish History Center and the Blumenthal Library.
The museum does not have enough money yet to renovate the building. It will undertake a major capital campaign to raise the needed funds.
In the meantime, one floor of the downtown Berkeley building is occupied by a small research unit of Atmel, a Silicon Valley semiconductor maker. The library will lease the entire space — obviously a better deal for the museum.
Last week, the Berkeley City Council approved a 30-month museum-library lease for $1.65 million that includes rent, property taxes and building improvements. The Magnes-owned building cannot accommodate the library’s entire 300,000-book collection. But it can house a large number of books, as well as the institution’s service staff. Those books that cannot fit in the building will go into storage.
Library staff spent eight months looking at possible temporary sites, according to Elena Engel, the library’s project manager for the renovation. Many of the spaces, she added, were far more suitable for offices or retail stores than for a massive public entity.
“I can’t tell you how many spaces we looked at, but it was a lot,” Engel said. “We kept looking until we found something. We’re thrilled.”
She hopes the library will move into its new quarters by the end of this summer.
Seymour Fromer, who continues to act as Magnes’ executive director despite his recent retirement, also expressed enthusiasm over the deal.
“We’re thrilled we can help the community and the library to serve it patrons until we need the building,” he said.
Looking ahead, Fromer projects that the building will occupy about 34,000 square feet once the renovations are completed and the Magnes moves in.
“It provides us with at least twice as much space as we have now,” he said of the building, which is close to BART and the U.C. Berkeley campus.
“It will give us a first-class museum space,” Fromer said.