Better technology, more meeting and study space and a fresh design are coming for Suffolk library-goers when the city opens its long-planned downtown library in late spring.
Library leaders are optimistic that the larger building will also lead to greater usage by the community.
“It’s going to be a landmark,” said Clint Rudy, Suffolk Public Library director. “This is going to transform what library services are here and bring us to a level of trying to meet the standard of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, especially.”
The Downtown Suffolk Library will replace the old Morgan Memorial Library nearby, a former furniture store from the 1950s that was converted into a library about 40 years ago. The new building will be 22,000 square feet larger than Morgan. The city’s libraries will collectively span about 60,000 square feet once the new building is ready, compared to the current 37,000.
Rudy expects the larger footprint, alongside a modernized design and technology, could double the number of library visitors.
“I think it’s going to be more than that because we’ve just never seen the level and quality of building in the city before,” he said.
Research suggests Rudy may be right. Multiple studies report that new or renovated public libraries increase usage, which in turn bolsters student learning and achievement.
Suffolk's library visits per 10,000 people are among the lowest in Hampton Roads, ahead of just Norfolk and Portsmouth as of 2021. Chesapeake leads on the southside, though it trails behind Poquoson and Williamsburg Regional Library on the Peninsula.
Chesapeake and Virginia Beach “invested in buildings in many different areas of their communities, and they’re nice buildings, so they’re usable,” Rudy said. “Here, we only have three for the largest square mile city in the commonwealth.”
The downtown library’s been a need for more than 25 years, but politics and shifting priorities have stalled progress. Interim Deputy City Manager Gerry Jones said it was put on the city’s capital projects list as early as 1999.
“We had sites picked out and everything.”
The project moved up and down the priority list throughout the years until 2007, when the city instead built the North Suffolk Library in response to speedy population growth. Council finally funded the $25 million downtown library and began work on the building nearly two years ago.
The building will have more room for data lines, space for which was “maxed out” at the Morgan location, according to Rudy. It’s planned to house more than 100 public access computers, a pair of maker space labs and more study rooms and meeting areas than Morgan.
It will have devoted teen and children’s areas, including an outdoor play space, and a flexible, open design that Rudy believes will make it easier for staff to supervise the building. Several rooftops visible through second-floor windows will look out on low-maintenance planters. The upper floor will also display a donated painting by the late Suffolk-born artist Judith Godwin, a renowned abstract impressionist.
The library's design is inspired by Henrico County’s award-winning Fairfield branch, mixing interactive arts and games, functional Scandinavian-influenced furnishing and imaginative constructions such as a towering tree feature meant to reflect the environment of the Great Dismal Swamp.
“Lots of natural light, lots of bright colors and just making it very opening and welcoming,” Rudy said.
Jones, a long-time project manager, gushes about how light moves through the wide open lobby space.
“When you come here throughout the day, you start seeing a lot of long shadows on the walls — and they change,” he said. “At different times of the year, the lighting will be lower, the shadow will be longer; it’s an interesting dynamic space.”
The library is a cornerstone of the downtown master plan to spur private investment in the area. Jones expects the library can help make downtown more attractive and inspire new shops, restaurants and amenities to set up nearby.
“The intent is to get more activity in the downtown, more points of destination in the downtown,” Jones said. “That’s going to be a big asset.”
