Architects: LEVER Architecture; Noll & Tam Architects
Size and location: Expanding to 30,000 square feet on the existing site
Timeline: Closing for construction March 18, 2023; Scheduled to be complete spring 2025
While Albina Library is closed for construction, Multnomah County libraries will be providing services in our service languages in the areas most affected by lack of access. Find your nearest library location and other service updates.
Get involved
What do you want your library to look like? Join in these upcoming community events and let’s build these libraries together.
Community events will be updated as they are scheduled.
Gifts to The Library Foundation will support an interactive early learning space, a mobile creative learning lab, and a study space for teens at Albina Library.
New features
Albina Library will be renovated and expanded, resulting in 30,000 square feet of space. The library will change and grow along with the community while keeping the historic Carnegie exterior on Knott Street.
Based on input from community members, new features will include:
- Outdoor courtyard for community members to relax and connect.
- Large community and meeting rooms.
- Expanded study spaces.
- Teen room with space for technology, homework and creative expression.
- Updated technology and internet.
- New art that represents the community.
Get a sneak peek at what Albina Library will look like with this fly-through. The interior color was voted on by you, the community.
Keep up to date with this livestream inside the construction site.
Centering the community
Albina Library is located in a historically Black neighborhood. That’s why we centered the Black community, seeking their insights through focus groups, tabling events and one-on-one talks.
We also reached out to other groups in the neighborhood. We heard from the community through public meetings, surveys, workshops and more. The design team hosted paid focus groups with diverse groups, including:
- Spanish-speaking communities
- Immigrants and refugees
- Indigenous communities
- Disability community
Teens helped shape teen spaces through a paid program called Youth Opportunity Design Approach (YODA). In sessions led by the architects and youth librarians, teens who use Albina and North Portland libraries shared what will make them feel welcome.
