Mendenhall Valley Public Library celebrates 10 years at Dimond Park
- Ellie Ruel
- 18 hours ago
- 4 min read
Branch’s vision expands — literally in multiple ways — since its move from Mendenhall Mall
By Ellie Ruel
Juneau Independent
The Mendenhall Valley Public Library celebrated a decade of being open in its Dimond Complex building Saturday afternoon.
A three-hour event featured a photo booth, face painting, decorations of commemorative t-shirts from the summer reading club program and private collections, and a chance to sign a guest book.
“It’s like a birthday party for the building,” said Lacey Alexis, a youth services library assistant who was doing face paint with a customized recipe of face glitter.
This library branch gets more fanfare due to its recent history.
“It really took a long time to make this building a reality,” said Catherine Melville, Juneau Public Libraries director.
The original Valley library branch opened in the mid-’80s in the Mendenhall Mall before finding its permanent home in the Dimond Park complex. The new 24,000-square-foot space is nearly twice as large as the mall location.
Most of the $14 million cost of the Dimond Park library came from a state grant and city sales tax. The Friends of the Library also contributed about $1 million, much of it from sales at their used bookstore.
“It really was like the stars were aligned, kind of a miracle,” Melville said of the efforts to obtain funds for the new site.
Melville said while the old location was functional, the move was a definite upgrade.
“I started working in the library system in 2003. Spent a lot of time working at the Mendenhall Mall location which, most of the time we were there, didn't have any windows at all. And then, eventually, they installed these very little windows,” Melville said. “Being in a space where you can be indoors and kind of doing indoor library things, but feel connected to the outside, is definitely one of my favorite things and is a huge improvement over what it was before.”
The brick building lets natural light in from windows on all four walls, reflecting over the wood slat ceiling. Seating areas, a gas fireplace, and multiple study and meeting rooms make the space multifunctional.
For Christie Hinz, who brought her 1-year-old daughter Zoe to the photobooth, the kids’ section is a frequented area. The colorful room has stencils of wildlife like bears and fish on the walls and carpeted reading nooks.
“It’s a nice area for her,” Hinz said. “Just having a safe, colorful space for her to be able to crawl around and learn, and get to read her stories.”
The library was Ron Reed’s first project as a superintendent for Dawson Construction. At Saturday’s ceremony, he was color-matching the fireplace’s fasteners to its faceplate.
He was involved in the project from the foundation up, and noted some of the difficulties faced during the construction project. For example, almost none of the corners have the same dimensions. There’s only one square corner in the entire building.
“None of them are the same,” Reed said, pointing at the edges of the building. They're each unique, only by a few inches.”
The outside brickwork was also a new area, since Reed said there’s not a lot of masonry in Southeast Alaska. The bricks of the outside wall are engraved with donor names or literary references.
“I actually laid bricks out in the front corner just so that I can say I've done it before because it was my first one,” Reed said.
He said hanging the swans with open books for wings, the “Flight of Imagination” by Dan DeRoux, was also no small feat. Each sculpture had to be wheeled in, hung, and then have wings attached.
Jen Gardner, grants and marketing coordinator for JPL, works at all the different branches, but appreciates that the Mendenhall Library serves a variety of age ranges.
“Just generally, I love that the library supports people in their individual journeys to learn and to access information,” Gardner said. “Whether that is parents looking for ways to get their young kids engaged in storytime and literacy, or adults coming in to further their own knowledge on genealogy, or any number of topics. I love that we serve that and that we are really here to help people access the information that they want to access, and just seeing how many people are touched by that in the community is really rewarding.”
• Contact Ellie Ruel at ellie.ruel@juneauindependent.com. Special correspondent Laurie Craig contributed to this article.
