Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has completed the new Billie Jean King Main Library situated at the heart of Downtown Long Beach, in California. The state-of-the-art, structural timber building features distinct and identifiable interior spaces that maximize square footage and enhance user accessibility and staff efficiency.
The design by SOM provides a welcoming and flexible environment that now serves more than 1,000 daily visitors. To lure the community inside, the library includes a variety of amenity spaces, such as a family learning center, children’s reading room, veterans’ resource center, and multipurpose rooms with separate entrances. The building also houses maker spaces with capabilities for film editing, 3D printing, and robotics. On top of all that, visitors can peruse two-floors of shelves holding more than 300,000 books, including one of the largest comics and graphic novel collections in Southern California.