Palo Alto Pulse Presents: A Sneak Peak of the New Mitchell Park Library

Palo Alto Pulse is excited to announce a new partnership with Palo Alto High School’s Paly Voice, which will allow the terrific reporting from that publication to reach a larger audience. We are also working on a partnership with Gunn High School as well as other Palo Alto schools. This article, by Lydia Barry and Will Zhou, first appeared on the Paly Voice on October 2, 2014 and has been adapted for Palo Alto Pulse.

This past Saturday Palo Altans lined up to get a sneak peek of the new Mitchell Park Library, which is finally slated to open after three years of construction delays and cost overruns. According to Palo Alto City Manager James Keene, “The 56,000 square foot facility includes flexible library spaces, separate teen room, computer room, quiet reading rooms, game rooms, basketball area, Ada’s Cafe and many other amenities.”

Here’s a glimpse of some of the exciting features of this new community resource.

Cheerful and enormous children’s area

The new space at Mitchell Park, which is almost as big as the entire Children’s Library on Harriet Street, has colorful, comfortable furniture and a book and media collection that is twice as big as what was available in the old library.

Children’s Room at Mitchell Park
photo by Lydia Barry

Teen center where kids can hang out and connect with the community

The library is designed as a platform for teens to get involved in the community. The space includes a Homework Center for grades K-5 that will be staffed by teen volunteers, many places to study and a lounge with ping pong, pool and foosball, as well as a flat screen TV for watching movies and gaming. The new library will also have a Teen Advisory Board to help guide future programs to engage youth.

Teen Lounge at Mitchell Park library
photo by Paly Voice

Environmentally friendly design

According the the City of Palo Alto website, the library is built to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified at the platinum level, the highest rating possible. The new library’s parking area also features plug in stations for electric vehicles.