State Breaks Ground on $10.6M Library Annex

BALTIMORE, MD-Construction of a $10.6 million annex to The Enoch Pratt Free Library has officially begun with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by state and local officials. The 51,000-sf addition to resource facility, designed by local architectural firm Ayers/Saint/Gross, Inc. and funded by the state, is scheduled for completion in June of next year. This project is the first phase of what will be a multi-faceted, $56.5 million facility expansion and renovation project that will be finished in 2008.

“This is the first time the library expanded since it opened in 1933,” Raquel Guillory, spokesperson for the office of Gov. Parris N. Glendening, tells GlobeSt.com. “This is important because the addition will include some great improvements to the library. There will be an African American reading room, an area for works by Maryland associated authors, and the building is going to connect to the main library and the Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.” The annex will house a public computer room, as well. Columbia, MD’s Costello Construction is serving as the project contractor.