Park Street Library

Building a new library for the Frog Hollow community in Hartford meant replacing one of Hartford’s smallest and busiest branches with its biggest, as well as bringing the city’s largest collection of Spanish-language materials to one place. Most importantly the new library is also bringing people together in what can be, at times, a divided neighborhood.

“This is a beacon of hope for the neighborhood, something they can really be proud of.”
— Graciela Rivera, Park Street Library Manager

Links to the Lyric 

The library occupies the site of the 1923 Lyric Theater, an important anchor in Frog Hollow that showed films in Spanish and English for years before it was destroyed by fire in 1979. Despite efforts to save the building, it was ultimately demolished to make way for the library, whose design pays homage to the theater through its massing, as well as its use of brick, large-scale replicas of murals that once hung in its windows, and acoustical panels featuring full scale photos of the historic building in the larger public spaces. 

Enriching a vibrant retail and
residential community.

The new branch includes a 150-seat community room, smaller meeting rooms, a learning lab, a café, exhibit space and designated adult, teen and children’s areas and a protected courtyard. 

Where do you put the crane? 

The location at the neighborhood’s main intersection made for a very tight space in which to carry out construction, which posed risks to adjacent buildings as well as drivers and pedestrians. The city hired a full-time security guard stationed at the entry to direct traffic, while Downes installed an extensive seismic monitoring system that alerted the job superintendent to adjust operations as needed for safety and asset protection.

Nothing says hope like books and ice cream. 

Downes celebrated construction completion with a free books and ice-cream social for the neighborhood.