Loveland library in renovation home stretch

WELCOME READERS - The first phase of the renovation of the Loveland Public Library was completed in August, but the $8.1 million makeover won't be complete until the end of the year, with a grand reopening set for February 2012.

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  LET THERE BE LIGHT - The new entrance to the Loveland Public Library faces Adams Street rather than the parking lot, and, when it is completed later this year, will connect the new north-end addition with the existing library space.
  (Kate Hawthorne, Northern Colorado Business Report)

LOVELAND - The Loveland Public Library is getting a serious makeover, one that it needed in a serious way.

The $8.1 million project on the library, at 300 N. Adams Ave. near Civic Center Park, began last September and has added a total of 24,700 square feet to the existing library space, which encompassed a total of 32,600 square feet prior to the renovation.

The public gained access to some of the additional space in August, but there's still a lot of work to be done before the building is ready for its grand reopening in February.

Studies on the library completed earlier in the decade showed that the building was beyond its space and programming capacity, increasing the need for renovation with each passing year. The original plan for the renovation, proposed in 2008, came with a $9.4 million price tag, and was expected to be completed no sooner than 2014.

According to Loveland City Council, the project could only happen if a capital campaign produced $2 million in funding. The Friends of the Loveland Public Library Foundation Inc., took up the challenge with a fundraising campaign that began in early 2009.

The fundraising was set to begin just as the economy took a turn for the worse,