The long-awaited renovation of the building is almost complete, and although a few fences will remain for safety reasons, the library at 10 West 14th Parkway will open fully to the public on Sunday, November 3.
“It feels like such a relief,” says Central Library director Rachel Fewell. “It's hard to keep a huge public asset closed, even if you know you're doing good work with it. I can't wait for thousands of people to be back in this space, enjoying it, really seeing that it's theirs.”
The Central Library hasn’t been fully open since March 2020, though the new children’s library has been operational since 2022 and a section of the property was open so people could experience limited library services like picking up holds and browsing some of the library's collection. Since September 20, however, the entire building has been closed for a final construction push.
The Central Library building has two wings — one that's around thirty years old and the other over eighty years old. The building underwent some renovations in 2010, but they weren't as extensive.
The complete revamp this time around included updating all of the bathrooms and elevators as well as brightening hallways and creating more open spaces. A new event space, teen library level and first-floor reading area were also added.
To pay for the project, $38 million was allocated from the 2017 Elevate Denver bond package, as well as $10 million from the city’s capital improvement fund, $5.7 million from the Denver Public Library Friends Foundation and $5.25 million from the Denver library property tax passed in 2022. Additionally, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued DPL a grant for the new teen library.
Once the library is open again, the staff expects to see 2,000 to 2,500 visitors daily.
Instead of unreliable escalators, the Central Library now has a grand staircase system.
Catie Cheshire
“You can imagine how much attention the elevators, the restrooms and other things needed,” Michelle Jeske, city librarian and executive director of the Denver Public Library, said during a media tour on October 29. “In addition to that kind of attention, we really wanted to open up this space to be a very welcoming, very functional and very aesthetically pleasing place for people to be.”
Jeske said the library is both a neighborhood branch and a hub for all 27 Denver library locations across the city. It’s also “a place of refuge” for many in the community, she added.
The renovation removed antiquated escalators that were hard to keep operating, replacing them with a new grand staircase system in the library’s main atrium, Schlessman Hall. The entrances are more open, with a clearer view of where the circulation desk is; holds and returns are also central to the new main hall.
Behind the circulation desk in the main hall is an area called the commons, which Fewell described as the living room of the library. A selection of books for browsing is available in the circular room, along with various seating arrangements.
“People can come to meet with a friend, to have a coffee, have a short meeting at any of our little seating areas,” Fewell said during the tour. “Just bring your laptop to work all day. We really want this place to be really active and a nice neighborhood destination and downtown destination.”
The Red Chair Bookshop, named for the famous statue outside the library, Donald Lipski's "The Yearling," is now in the corner of the building near the intersection of West 13th Avenue and Broadway. By June 2025, the library aims to have a cafe space adjoining the bookshop, according to Jeske. The area has a window for to-go orders, and the DPL Friends Foundation is preparing to design a request for proposal for vendors to host the shop now.
“One of the big goals of this renovation is to activate this building fully,” Jeske added.”Imagine, when the cafe is open, people are coming in through there. They're grabbing a snack or grabbing a coffee. Hopefully they're stopping and buying some books, which helps the foundation and the library. Then they're going in, hopefully getting their holds, checking out some new books and new DVDs."
Previously, the library’s event space was in the basement. The new event space, available for public bookings, features a multi-story view of Civic Center Park to the north of the library. Now the Park View space can be closed off for events, has its own entrance, can be open outside of library hours and has acoustic paneling on the walls and ceiling.
“We wanted it to be beautiful enough that it feels good and elevated and cool, but also feels neutral enough that you can put your stamp on it when you're in the space,” Fewell says.
A catering kitchen is attached to the space, which can fit up to 400 people and will be available to book starting in the spring or summer of 2025. According to library officials, they are still working to finalize scheduling software and fee structure. Fewell notes that the space can’t be an income or revenue source per city statute, so the fees could look similar to those used by Denver Parks & Recreation.
One highlight of the renovation almost didn’t come to fruition: The teen library on the second floor was part of the original plan, but when construction costs came in higher than anticipated, the area was on the chopping block. That’s where the federal HUD grant came in, helping complete the teen area by paying for the space's furniture and technology.
Sunday’s grand opening will be the only time anyone other than a teen or library staffer specifically hired to work with teens is allowed in the teen space. Only visitors aged thirteen through nineteen can use the room, but the young adult collection will still be outside of the restricted area so that all ages can browse those books.
“We think it's going to be very heavily used,” Jeske says. “Teens will be able to come here, be themselves — be with caring adults who enjoy working with them."
There are quiet spaces, project spaces and programming planned for the teens. Jeske says the library will need to work to build the audience for the space, but there are several schools nearby and youth experiencing homelessness, both of which should bring regular visitors to the teen space.
The fourth floor of the library is the busiest area, according to Jeske. There, people will have access to 180 computers; during the renovation, only 35 computers were available.
The fourth floor was designed with a calming color palette and environment. Because the library knows those experiencing homelessness are regular library users, Fewell says the focus was on giving those people an elevated experience compared to the previous iteration.
“This space really feels a lot more elegant than it used to,” Fewell says. “It used to feel very utilitarian, so we removed these huge tables that used to have nine computers around them to these more private spaces. Privacy is also really important. If you don't have a house, you don't have places to keep things. We wanted to make our bathrooms a refuge, too. If you're using this as your only plumbed toilet for the day, you feel like, ‘I can feel comfortable here.’”
Shelf heights were lowered so readers can have a better view of the library.
“When you center that kind of experience, everybody wins,” Denver Public Library communications director Erika Martinez said during the tour. “Who doesn't want more space?”
The fourth floor maker’s space will also be open for the first time since March 2020. This room includes sewing machines, a Cricut machine, a music studio and other tools for crafts or repairs. The renovation netted the library fifteen new meeting rooms for people to use free of charge, as well.
Along with plenty of new furniture, the library reused old furniture from the various iterations of its life, including several Andrew Carnegie tables from the early twentieth century that were in the McNichols Building across Civic Center Park.
“This building is old, but it doesn’t feel old anymore,” Valencia Culbreath, chief equity and strategy officer for the Denver Public Library says.
At 10 a.m. on Sunday, November 3, the Central Library will host a ribbon-cutting event in the Park View space with Mayor Mike Johnston and Senator John Hickenlooper. The library will be open to the public, with giveaways, refreshments and entertainment from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. From there, the library will resume its regular hours of 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
