Hollywood Public Library – Free Books and Cheap Thrills

I’m here at the Multnomah County Hollywood Library, located on Northeast Tillamook Street between 40th and 41st Ave in Portland’s Hollywood district.  This library carries the dubious distinction of being a multi-use facility that integrates a first floor library with upper floor residential apartments (known as the Bookmark Apartments).  A cafe is also included on the ground floor of the building, serving up caffeine and sweets to the cerebral elite and cash-starved Hipsters alike.  The library itself, which is part of Multnomah County’s expansive library system, holds a whopping 75,000 books within 13,000 square feet and includes Wi-Fi access, over 30 computer terminals, quiet study rooms, and a community conference center.  Members of the library also have off-site access to Multnomah County’s large database collection.   All of which is free and willing for greedy and entitled Portland residents to abuse and misuse.

Bookmark, a name suggesting the holding of a page in a book for return reading (quite germane I must say given that it sits above a library), includes 47 apartments, ranging from studios, spit-level lofts, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms.  The second level includes a terrace with patio furniture and grills accessible to all tenants of the building.  The apartments are certified as Earth Advantage homes and sustainable building practices were used in constructing the apartments.  Rental terms range from 6 months to a year for a stable and secure residence, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Developed by Sockeye Hollywood following the passage of a $26.9 million bond measure in 1996 that was earmarked to upgrade four branch libraries, Hollywood Library is not the first multi-use library building in the world, of which predecessors include Vancouver’s main library that blends with retail space, but it is thought to be the first to combine a library with living space.  The new Tillamook Street location  replaced the existing library that was built in 1959 on nearby 3930 NE Hancock Street.  The old building, which was closed in April of 2002 and sold for $675,000, now houses several retail shops and a church, including “Fleur De Lis Bakery & Cafe” which was previously and only for a short term in 2005 “Suena Cafe”.

The idea of a mixed-used library came from county commissioners who promoted the concept in order to increase neighborhood densities by placing facilities on the first floor of the building and housing or office space in the above floors.  The proposal of a multi-use building didn’t come without its detractors.  Portland, at the time that the new Hollywood library was being designed and built, had experienced several delays in the building of mixed-use properties, including the Hollywood library, which led to cost overruns and questions from tax-payers as to the value in combining county facilities with other uses.  In fact, in January 2001 this concern led the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners to revise Hillsdale Library, a similarly proposed multi-use facility that originally included a new location in a shopping center and in-building housing, to instead be a stand-alone library located in the spot of the existing library.  Hollywood residents also voiced concerns with the original design of the new library, particularly noting that the height of the new building (at the time it was 5 stories) was out of place within a mostly single or two-story residential community.  It didn’t help that a website marketing the design had previously listed the building at only 2 stories.  A dramatic late night vote following 4 1/2 hours of public testimony led to the final and current structure which stands at 4 stories, cutting about 12 feet from the original height and saving thousands of children from what could have been year-round nuclear-winter-like conditions, given that a building of such a height (65 feet!) would have blocked out the sun for miles in all directions and killed off all vegetation in nearby Grant Park.

Interestingly, given just a few years, people’s attitudes change.  In early 2010 a five-story complex featuring a mammoth Whole Foods supermarket and more than 50 condominiums was constructed in the Hollywood district just 2 blocks from the Hollywood Library.  Next to that behemoth the multi-use library facility now looks like a mosquito bite in the proverbial hairy armpit of the Hollywood district.

The Multnomah County Hollywood library is currently open Monday & Tuesday from 10 a.m.–8 p.m., Wednesday–Saturday from 10 a.m.–6 p.m. and Sunday from noon–5 p.m.  The cafe has separate hours, but cafe management has recently changed and hours are expected to soon change as well.  Be sure to visit when the weather is nice to take advantage of the walls that contract to convert the cafe space into open-air seating.  Also of local interest is the Tri-met bus that idles daily for hours on end in the nearby parking lot.