Historic Oakland library becomes museum
Oakland, Calif.’s classical Beaux Arts main library has lain vacant for a decade, the victim of damage inflicted by 1989’s Loma Prieta earthquake. Now, the library is getting a new life — as the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO), a facility city leaders hope will help revitalize one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.
AAMLO is dedicated to preserving and sharing the experiences of African Americans in Northern California. It is envisioned as a museum and reference library with high-tech, accessible multimedia exhibits that showcase its special collections — photographs, manuscripts, letters, diaries, memoirs, periodicals and recorded oral histories, as well as the documents of such early African American leaders as Ida B. Wells and W. E. B. Dubois.
San Francisco-based Michael Willis Architects is leading a team of 30 planners, museum and exhibit consultants, preservation specialists (the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places), and engineers in the historically sensitive retrofit and conversion. The project is scheduled for completion in June.
The 17,000-square-foot building, with east and west walls that were separated in the earthquake, is being partially disassembled for installation of a new concrete frame and steel roof members. The old facade is being restored.
The building’s interior, which features coffered and stenciled plaster ceilings, oak paneling and spacious reading rooms, is being preserved, even as building systems are being upgraded.
Funding is being provided by the city and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and through the California State Library/Library Services and Construction Act.