The city of Hartford on Tuesday started development of a new $12.5 million library in the South End’s Frog Hollow neighborhood.
The two-story Park Street Library branch, spanning over 13,000 square feet, will become the city’s largest library when it debuts sometime in summer 2020. The library, one of seven operated by the city, is currently based in a small rented space just a few blocks away on the corner of Babcock Street.
The project is being seeded by an $11.1 million grant from the state Bond Commission and a $1 million grant from the Connecticut State Library. The city will cover the remaining approximately $400,000 in costs.
According to plans, the facility will include a 150-seat community room, meeting rooms, a cafe, exhibit space, a “learning lab,” and an enclosed courtyard, among other amenities. It will span across several buildings at the corner of Park and Broad streets, which housed the shuttered Lyric Theatre.
The Lyric has been dormant for decades since a fire damaged the facility in the late 1970s. The city acquired the parcel in the early 1990s, and razed a rear portion of the building in 2010.
The newly minted Park Street Library will occupy the vacant building and cleared space in the rear of the property, officials said.
The library construction is being led by New Britain-based Downes Construction Co., and the development was designed by Hartford architecture firm TKSP Studio.
