01/25/1988 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e e e Mr. Sweetland asked why the current library had been built without allowing for additional floors with enough strength to hold stacks of books. He asked why City Hall had been built with no provision for additional floors. He said costs of leasing office space for City offices now amounted to $500,000 per year because the building had not been designed and built properly. He asked why "such a monstrosity of inefficient design" as the new County engineering offices on Delta Highway had been allowed, and why the halls in the County annex building were so wide, while office space was crowded. Mr. Sweetland said he believed problems resulted because architects were paid based on a percentage of the project cost, which was not tied to efficiency of use or long-term benefits. He said he thought it was a "crime" that the library should become obsolete in only 28 years, and he believed that no public building should have a useful life of less than 50 years, or much longer with proper design and planning, as was the case with buildings on the East Coast and in Europe. Mr. Sweetland suggested the community avoid those types of "architectural blunders" by 1) having the library board appoint an architectural control committee composed of five to eight citizens with backgrounds in civil and structural engineering, construction, and design, people who would actively work on the problem so that the community would get a beautiful yet functional library at a reasonable cost, and 2) appointing an architectural firm only on the basis of competitive preliminary design when the site had been selected, which he hoped would be soon. Louis Frank Bonson, Box 944, spoke in opposition. He said he had submitted a letter to councilors and had read the report, and he found much of the information offered in support to be IIfalse rhetoric." He read from a letter he had written to the local newspaper, in which he asked whether taxpayers favored a $25 million library that would increase property taxes and that was not needed. Mr. Bonson said he saw no need for a new library, except for additional storage that could be added for only a few thousand dollars. Mr. Bonson said Eugene already had the biggest and best library in the state at the University of Oregon library and its five specialty libraries. Mr. Bonson said he did not believe subcommittees had questioned the need for the library expansion. He expressed concern about operating costs, which would not be needed if only storage were expanded. He also asked about the reasons for library construction costs of more than $200 per square foot. Mr. Bonson said taxpayers and businesses could not afford additional taxes, and he asked the council to "quit steal i ng from the poor to support the rich." He said a $25 million addition to the U of 0 Library was being proposed, and school libraries already existed throughout the MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 25, 1988 Page 4