Date: April 1, 2005

New Miami Beach Regional Library Opens

Miami Beach, FL -- The City of Miami Beach celebrates the completion opening of the new 42,088 sq ft. Miami Beach Regional Library, located at 227 22nd Street, on Friday, April 1, at 2:00 p.m. The new Miami-Dade County library joins the Bass Museum of Art and the Miami City Ballet buildings as another cornerstone of the Collins Parks Cultural Campus, a master plan envisioned by the City in 1998 and one that is sure to become yet another important civic and cultural area in Miami Beach.

The opening celebration will continue throughout the weekend at the library with an author’s evening on Saturday, April 2, at 7:30 p.m. and a free Family Festival Day on Sunday, April 3, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Designed by renowned architect Robert A.M. Stern, the library houses an auditorium, community meeting rooms, a cafe, an outdoor reading garden, a state-of-the-art computer system, and a comfortable children's room. The $8.6 million project also includes two parking areas and streetscape improvements to the area.

The Collins Park Cultural Campus Master Plan will be complete with the demolition of the old library, which is scheduled to begin in July of this year, and the rehabilitation of Collins Park, which is currently in the planning stage and is scheduled for construction next year.

The Miami Beach Regional Library is a result of the transaction involving Miami-Dade County’s Performing Arts Center where Miami-Dade County agreed to establish and operate a new regional library in Miami Beach. In 1996, the Miami-Dade County Library System committed the funds to the City of Miami Beach to build a regional library and in return they would operate the facility at the County’s expense once the project was completed. The City of Miami Beach was also to provide the land on which the facility would be built. Through a long public process, a site near Collins Park was selected from two potential sites (North Shore and Collins Park, where a library branch already existed) and construction commenced in 2002, following the demolition of existing buildings in 2001. The City passed the keys to Miami-Dade County in October 2003.

For additional information, visit www.mdpls.org or call 305-535-4219.

MIAMI BEACH LIBRARY HISTORY

Public Library service on Miami Beach dates back to 1927, just 12 years after the city incorporated. The Miami Beach Women’s Club organized the first library in the Hampton Arcade on Lincoln Road. The Miami Beach Library and Art Institute Association asked Russell Pancoast, grandson of Miami Beach pioneer John A. Collins, to design a library, art museum and natural history museum. Collins had purchased and donated the land now known as Collins Park. The Miami Beach Library and Art Center opened in the John Collins Memorial Library in 1930 in the space occupied by the Bass Museum since 1964. The library at 2100 Collins Avenue opened on November 25, 1962. On October 1, 1986, the Miami Beach Public Library and its two branches became part of the Miami-Dade Public Library System. On March 1, 2005 the Miami Beach Regional Library opened its doors to the public, joining the Bass Museum and the Miami City Ballet in a Cultural Plaza at Collins Park, fulfilling the initial dream of the Miami Beach Library and Art Institute.

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