High Priority

New library at CSUMB fills crucial need

By Robert Carlsen

The 13-year-old California State University, Monterey Bay, located on the grounds of the former Fort Ord, has been waiting since its beginning to get a new high-tech library to replace its current facility, which consists of half of a small former military building.

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CSUMB knew what it wanted all along -- a library that is just as much about learning spaces as learning resources – but it needed the funding.

Finally, construction of a new and true university library was given high priority by the CSUMB administration, the CSU system and the state.

Groundbreaking for the new, $64 million, 136,000-sq-ft CSUMB library was in October and completion is scheduled for September 2008. The campus will name its new library in honor of the Tanimura and Antle families, whose Salinas-based company ranks as one of the largest independent lettuce growers/distributors in the world.

The Tanimura and Antle families made a lead gift of $4 million, seeding
the campaign to raise $12 million in private funding to augment
 the $52-million state allocation for the building.

S.J. Amoroso Construction Co. of Redwood City is the general contractor on the project and San Francisco’s EHDD Architecture did the design.

This newest, biggest building on campus will have an initial shelving capacity of 152,000 volumes with a potential of 573,000 volumes.

There will be 10 group-study rooms, 197-seat and 97-seat auditoriums, three classrooms, two instructional labs, a writing lab, technology lab, listening rooms, an archive room and a tutoring room with connected computer lab.


EHDD architect Thomas Blessing says a key organizing element to the three-story facility is the glass atrium that rises to the arched roof above the terrazzo on the first floor. The atrium splits the square footprint of the building down the middle, effectively drawing natural light to every floor during the daylight hours.

The split of the footprint also creates two wings – one to house the library collections and the other for office space and partner programs. This saved construction costs because the collections wing needed the added expense of reinforced floors to bear the weight of the book stacks and the office space didn’t, Blessing says.

He adds that the orientation of the building – with one end facing the Salinas Valley and the other the Monterey Peninsula – “reflects the connection that CSUMB wants to create between the valley and peninsula.”

“If the university wants to pursue LEED certification, we could probably make at least a silver based on our energy-efficiency elements,” Blessing says. “Just our under-floor air distribution system alone will surpass Title 25 requirements by 30 percent.”

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