Architects: Bora Architecture & Interiors
General contractor: Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty company
Size and location: The building has expanded on the existing site
Timeline: Opening August 15, 2026
Belmont Library has more than doubled in size to approximately 15,000 square feet, keeping the original 1924 brick building (last updated in 2000 and not a Carnegie building) and adding a new, two-story addition.
Belmont Library is one of the busiest locations in the entire county for circulation, yet it had one of the smallest footprints before construction (approximately 6,000 square feet). It’s a textbook example of the space shortage the library bond worked to fix. To recognize its role as a beloved location, all of the updates are the result of extensive community and staff engagement with features for the community to enjoy.
Gifts to The Library Foundation supported the creation of an interactive early learning space, a teen room for students to gather and study, and mobile creative learning lab at Belmont Library.
Celebrate the grand opening of Belmont Library!
We are excited to welcome you to the expanded Belmont Library. Join us for two days of free, fun-filled community events to celebrate. Community events will be updated here as they are scheduled.
Saturday, August 15, 2026
Music with Maeve Stier, Soprano & Accordionist; 10-11 am
The Reluctant Dragon; 10:30-11:30 am
Jazz for the Whole Family; 11:30 am-12:30 pm
Edible Wild Plants: Free Foods From Foraging to Feasting; 3-4:30 pm
Sunday, August 16, 2026
Explore Audio Visual Equipment; 12-1pm
Bossa PDX: Music of Brazil; 12:30-1:30 pm
Rez Rhythm Fitness with Gigs; 2-3 pm
Musical Playtime: A Family Dance Party with Eli Rosenblatt; 3-4 pm
New features
All of Belmont’s features are the result of extensive community and staff engagement with features for the community to enjoy.
New features include:
- An early learning and play space for children and their families.
- Two small and two large community rooms for meetings and library programs.
- A teen area for engaging with technology, connection and creativity.
- Updated wi-fi and technology, including more laptops, iPads and creative software for patron use.
- New Automated Materials Handling system, ensuring materials get to patrons much faster.
- Modern self-checkout stations to provide a better patron experience.
- 17,000 books, DVDs and CDs with representation of the cultural and language diversity of the neighborhood.
- New art that represents the community in partnership with the Regional Arts & Culture Council, including:
- A suspended sculpture in the teen area by artist Britt Howard
- A reading room wall installation by artist Emily Counts
- A lobby mural from the design team, with shapes inspired by a cut paper collage workshop held at the Belmont Street Fair.
See what you, the community, voted for at Belmont Library with this fly-through.
Centering the community
To amplify the community’s ideas, the library worked with the design team to host focus groups, public meetings, and public surveys. The library engaged over 3,000 people during more than 60 activities. Community members cast over 1,500 votes for Belmont’s interior color, and the winning theme was “Evening Glow,” with orange and golden yellow tones shifting into relaxed and calming blues.
Additionally, five Community Design Advocates were part of a paid program to connect with their communities about how Belmont Library can represent them. This group met with the library’s designers and worked together to plan their outreach, then gave feedback to the architects based on what they learned from their communities.
Belmont is also unique in that the community helped guide the direction for the renovation and expansion, with over 800 respondents providing input through an online survey as well as a physical survey and open house at Belmont before design began. The greatest number of respondents showed interest in keeping the historic building while adding more space, increasing to roughly two times the size of the original library.
Learn about how community engagement has guided all the projects.
