The North Shore Library facility has found a new home within an $84 million mixed-use development at the northwest corner of Brown Deer and Port Washington Roads in Bayside, Wisconsin.
As part of the project, Bayside Development Partners II, LLC have pledged to include the library’s 24,000 square foot re-design in a newly constructed building adjacent to the development’s outdoor plaza, according to the Village of Bayside.
“We want this development to be a hub of activity in the community and having a library here will add to its liveliness and serve the area’s long-standing need to upgrade the community library,” said Scott Yauck of Bayside Development Partners II, LLC. “We are fully invested in the success of this area, and the library is a big part of that commitment.”
This gift represents half of the original $8 million fundraising goal for the new library, which will serve Bayside, Fox Point, Glendale and River Hills.
The current facility, built in 1986, is outdated and too small to serve the growing community, according to the village.
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To raise the remaining $4 million needed to equip and furnish the new building, the four municipalities served by the library are coming together for a “Building a Better North Shore Together” capital campaign. It will be co-chaired by former Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan “Bud” Selig and prominent arts activist and philanthropist Marianna Lubar have signed on to lend their expertise.
“I am proud and excited to be part of this new beginning for the North Shore Library,” said Lubar, a longtime resident of Bayside. “Libraries are the most democratic institutions in the world.
Lubar and her husband serve on many public and non-profit boards including Milwaukee Public Library Foundation and the Golda Meir Library at the UW-Milwaukee.
Selig, too, is dedicated to the project and will pull on his experience as a leader of the group that purchased the Seattle Pilots in 1970 and revived the franchise as the Milwaukee Brewers.
The new library will feature welcoming public spaces, up-to-date technology, more programming for all ages and at least 50% more space than the current library, according to the village.
Construction is expected to begin later this year, and the new facility could be up and running in just 12 to 18 months.
