Tagged: New Central Library

Arsenic, lead and the byproducts of burned oil were some of the contaminants found underneath an electrical substation at the Seaholm power plant downtown.

The land will eventually be home to Austin’s new central library. Those contaminants have now been removed and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has issued its seal of approval.

A new central library – an updated replacement for the 1970s-era  Faulk Central Library downtown – has been in the works since 2006. It was that year that voters approved $90 million in bonds to finance the project.

Six years later, and construction hasn’t  started on what the city touts as the “library for the future.” And the Austin City Council recently approved an additional $1.3 million in funding.  

In the spring of 2008, the Council approved the library’s site, nestled between the slated-for-redevelopment Seaholm Power Plant, and the site of the former Green Water Treatment Plant.  The library was officially defined as the “Library for the Future” when the council approved an “Architectural Program Building Narrative” later that year. That’s also when the council also selected the architects to guide the project.