I somehow suspected that the new library would not be finished before I moved away from Cambridge. It took perhaps ten years to complete this project. First, there was an interminable years of decision making about where to locate the building. Some, including me,  favored a Central Square location. But, in the end, a site adjacent to the old main library was selected. Then, another interminable design phase came. Finally construction began. The library now had opened. According to Robert Campbell, in his Boston Globe review of the building, it took 15 years and $10 million of state funds and $81 million of city money to build it. The library has a floor plan and other information about the building on its website.

Time will tell about how well this building functions as a library and public building. Part of this result will depend on the library staff being inventive and welcoming to public events in the lecture hall in the second basement and the other open spaces in the building. The new building does not have the encompassing warmth of the old building with its dark woods and somewhat less vast spaces.

If you are interested in the “green:” aspect of the building go here for a review of those features (a PDF file).

I went to for a visit.