Pasadena Breaks Ground on Retrofit of Beloved Central Library

Tim McDonald saw tears in the audience Friday.

From his position on stage outside Pasadena’s Central Library, the city’s library director watched as speaker after speaker described what the nearly century-old building means to them — and to generations of residents who have passed through its doors since 1927. The crowd listened, and some of them wept.

“You could tell there was a real sense of pride and ownership of the building, and I saw quite a few people tear up too,” McDonald said in an interview Friday afternoon. “It really means that much to them.”

The occasion was a groundbreaking ceremony — the official start of a $195 million renovation project that will bring the red-tagged building back to life after more than four years of enforced silence. The library closed on May 3, 2021, after a structural review found the unreinforced masonry structure posed an elevated risk of collapse in an earthquake. It has remained shuttered ever since, its services scattered to branch locations and online offerings, many of its special collections and cultural programs inaccessible.

Friday’s ceremony marked the halfway point of what is expected to be a seven-year closure. If all goes according to plan, the doors will reopen in summer 2028.

Voters made that possible just over a year ago, approving Measure PL on November 5, 2024, authorizing the bonds to fund the massive retrofit. The project, driven by California seismic safety requirements for unreinforced masonry structures, will lift the red-tag designation, add functional enhancements, and replace systems that have grown outdated over nearly a century of service.

The building itself is a landmark — designed by architects Myron Hunt and H.C. Chambers and opened in 1927. It underwent a major interior restoration from 1984 to 1990, funded by the Pasadena Public Library Foundation, and received a National Preservation Award in October 1990. When the city sought public input last June, residents submitted correspondence strongly supporting the retrofit and opposing demolition.

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“It’s a place for all of us to be, no matter your background, your color, ethnicity or religion. It belongs to all of us.”

— Tim McDonald, Pasadena Library Director

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Mayor Victor Gordo spoke on Friday about growing up in Pasadena and coming to the library from a very young age. Councilmember Justin Jones, whose District 3 includes the library site, noted that his family arrived in the city in the late 1800s and watched the building go up in the 1920s. He called the Central Library “one of Pasadena’s great equalizers — a place where generations have learned, gathered, and grown together.”

Public Works Director Greg de Vinck outlined the road ahead: Gruen Associates is leading the design work under a contract approved in February 2023, and PCL Construction Services was selected as Construction Manager at Risk in July. Full construction is expected to begin in early 2026.

But the technical details seemed secondary to the emotion in the crowd.

McDonald said he frequently hears stories about the library when people learn he is the director — grandparents taking them to the library for the first time, coming to study for a degree, a safe place to be after school.

“I heard a lot of those stories again today — that underlines the fact that the library is really a community hub,” he said.

What struck McDonald most was not so much the presence of any single leader on stage, but the sense that an entire community had gathered to bring this building back.

Nearly a century ago, the residents of Pasadena built this library as an investment in the future. On Friday, their descendants renewed that investment — and some of them teared up while doing it.

Updates on the Pasadena Central Library Seismic Retrofit and Renovation Project are available at cityofpasadena.net/library.