If Ebba Wicks Brown could see the renovations happening to her Astor Library building, the trailblazing architect — whose austere design defines much of downtown Astoria — likely would approve of the changes being made to her Brutalist masterpiece.

The Astoria library is halfway through an extensive and transformative renovation that will modernize the 58-year-old building and the services it provides, and double the library’s size.

The $10.7 million renovation is within budget and on time, scheduled to be complete this fall. The rebuild was more than a decade in the making, and initial conversations toyed with moving the library to a different building altogether.

But a successful bond measure campaign, a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and an architectural design allowing the library to fully utilize its basement led the Astoria Public Library not only to renovate, but also to embrace, the building it has operated in since 1967.

In doing so, the renovation celebrates the building’s architectural heritage as a classic example of Brutalist architecture, designed by a prominent local architect, and will also promote and reflect Astoria’s history and culture.

Since September, when construction began, the Astoria Public Library has operated out of a temporary space five blocks to the east at 1512 Duane St.

The temporary space, at the back of the Roby Furniture Building, has seen many uses over the years, including as a jail, rehabilitation center, apothecary shop, and home décor store. A labyrinthine network of narrow hallways leads to rooms of various sizes and decor. One room has a chandelier; another, carpeted walls. Another leads to a full-sized accessible bathroom with showers.

With the exception of a circulation area and one room open for browsing, the library’s temporary space is not open to patrons. It is not accessible, and library staff cannot monitor every room, which presents safety concerns.

The room that patrons can browse contains the majority of the library’s collection, including children’s books, teen graphic novels and fiction, adult fiction, large print books, the library’s DVD and audio book collection, Spanish-language books, and books either recently published or new to the collection.

“It’s shoehorned in there,” Suzanne Harold, the library’s director, said, laughing.

The rest of the collection, including most nonfiction, informational books, and poetry, is in open storage. Patrons can request books, which library staff can pull. The quirky space lent itself well to such a system: Particular sections or types of books were assigned to a room, making them easy to organize and find. 

Since the move, circulation has decreased by about 25 to 30 percent compared to this time last year, Harold said. She attributes that to multiple reasons. Parking is limited, and there is no book drop to return checked-out books, meaning patrons must return books in person during library hours. Free access to computers and the internet, a staple of public libraries since the late 1990s, has had to be curtailed in the temporary space.

Many library programs, including hosting community meetings and author readings, are on hold. There are a few exceptions. A Teen Manga club meets at the Dock, a youth drop-in space. Another organization is hosting story times for toddlers and preschoolers.

“Programs get people in the door,” Harold said. “After the teen program, the teens would [browse] and stuff their backpacks.”

Harold thinks foot traffic and circulation “will skyrocket when we reopen.”

Doubling the library’s size

The renovation makes sorely needed repairs, including a new roof and updated electrical, plumbing, heating, and air conditioning systems. The library will become ADA-compliant, with, among other changes, new bathrooms and wider aisles between bookshelves. 

“We had some skinny aisles,” Harold said. “If you were in a wheelchair or used a stroller, it was a pretty tight fit.”

There will be one entrance, instead of two. The book drop, which had been outside, will move indoors. “There was no easy way to get books out and into the building without the books getting wet,” Harold said.

More computers will be available in the adult reading room. The children’s section will double in size, and there will be a dedicated space for teenagers.

The most transformative changes relate to light and space.

Large concrete slabs on the library’s north side have been removed and will be replaced with floor-to-ceiling windows. 

Astoria’s library has two floors: the main floor and a basement level. Accessible only by a concrete staircase, the basement was closed to the public.

A wide staircase and elevator will change that and double the library’s size, from 9,000 to 18,000 square feet.

The basement will be used for meeting spaces and “learning and collaborating,” Harold said. A gallery space will showcase local art. A large meeting room and three smaller rooms will be located in the basement as well. One will house a small kitchen for cooking and nutrition classes. Another room will contain media equipment for recording and other uses.

The library’s “Astoriana” collection, dedicated to the city’s history and culture, will also be housed in the basement. It is funded by a $500,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  

Over the years, the library became Astoria’s de facto archives and home to the city’s historical collections. Citizens have donated objects and personal papers, including letters, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and unpublished manuscripts. Legal documents, architectural drawings and plans for many of Astoria’s buildings, and other historical documents are among the collection.

The collection has been haphazardly stored in the basement, slowly but surely becoming organized and cataloged by John Goodenberger, Astoria’s city historian.

“The humanities grant came about because of what we were finding in the basement and the potential it has to be used for education,” Goodenberger said.

Goodenberger has given presentations, led public tours, and hosted school groups in the basement. “The ability for people to see firsthand and in some cases touch [these objects], it moves them. It excites them,” he said. “To be able to interpret those things incites a love and interest in the history.”

The renovations will add a room specifically for the collection and be large enough for Goodenberger and others to conduct research. “Being able to have a spot where I and others can do that is really significant,” he said.

A decade in the making

The renovation was years in the making and, at times, seemed like it would never come to fruition. 

Discovering the basement could be used proved to be the catalyst for choosing to renovate over relocating, as well as identifying an economical design and determining some of the library’s future programming.

The library first began exploring whether to renovate or build more than a decade ago. A 2013 needs assessment drew input from hundreds of Astoria citizens, who wanted more natural light, larger spaces for children and teenagers, more meeting spaces, and updated technology. 

In 2017, Hennebery Eddy Architects, a Portland architectural firm, became the project’s architect.

The basement was the first thing that David Wark, a historical architect at Hennebery Eddy, and his colleagues noticed –– and the fact that the library operated out of a 9,000-square-foot space in a building twice that size.  

“The part that caught our attention,” Wark said, was the basement’s ceiling, which were 12 feet high. “It is very unusual for a basement.”

Hennebery Eddy drew up plans making the basement usable. The design was “extremely economical,” Wark said, because the exterior walls and basic infrastructure already existed. 

A 20-by-40-foot square will be cut out of the main floor, where the staircase and elevator will connect the main floor and basement. The cutout is next to the floor-to-ceiling windows and large enough that light filters downward.

“It became clear we could make this work,” Wark said.

Conceptual plans were created for small, medium, and large renovations, each with budgets reflecting the scale of renovation. The question became how much money the library could raise.

In 2020, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the library the grant for its Astoriana section. It is a challenge grant, with a three-to-one match. In order to receive the $500,000 grant, the library needed to raise $1.5 million dollars.

A friends group spearheaded fundraising for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic slowed those efforts.

In January 2022, Bruce Jones, then Astoria’s mayor, decided it was time to, as Oregonians living on the coast might say, “fish or cut bait.”

“It was an issue that had been discussed for a decade, at least,” Jones said.

At that time, the library had $2.1 million, enough for a smaller renovation and repairing deferred maintenance. But Jones and others wondered if enough support existed for a bond measure to pay for a complete renovation.

“It was always my belief that a great town deserves a great library,” Jones said. “It’s one of those community assets I think is really critical.”

A poll conducted in May 2022 “came back looking pretty good,” Harold remembered. Astoria’s city council unanimously approved putting a bond measure on the November 2022 ballot, which would raise $8 million by taxing 57 cents per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.

The library hired a campaign manager who created a to-do list called “the path to victory.”

“We knocked off everything he said to do,” Harold said. “There was a great committee that met every week, people canvassed, there were tons of letters to the editor.”

Astoria voters approved the bond by 70 percent, a margin Jones called “overwhelming” and “very gratifying.”

“It was easy to get people excited about it,” Harold reflected. “People have good memories of the library.”

The bond unlocked the National Endowment for the Humanities grant, which came with requirements. Among them is preserving the historic significance of the library building.

Ebba Wicks Brown’s Brutalist Building

Astoria’s public library opened in 1892 and operated in multiple locations until its permanent location was built in 1967.

A squat, one-story building made of precast concrete, minimalist in design with skinny windows, the Astor Library Building is a quintessential example of Brutalist architecture.

The Brutalism architecture movement started in post-World War II Europe, when many European cities faced rebuilding government buildings, entire downtown sectors, and neighborhoods destroyed during the war. Rebuilding needed to be done cheaply and efficiently.

The Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier pioneered the style, as well as its name. His use of raw concrete inspired the description “béton brut,” French for “raw concrete.”

Classic features of Brutalism include the use of raw and exposed concrete, utilitarian designs lacking ornamentation, and small windows. Designs often utilized simple square and geometric shapes, giving Brutalist buildings blocky and fortress-like appearances.

Brutalism flourished in the 1960s and 1970s, especially in the design of government and public buildings. Now, the architectural style draws polarizing reactions: Some celebrate Brutalism for its minimalism and austerity, even calling it democratic. For others, the style is, at best, an acquired taste.

Astoria’s library building was designed by Ebba Wicks Brown, the second woman to work as a licensed architect in Oregon. Born and raised in Astoria, Wicks Brown was a leader of the United States’ Brutalism movement. 

She and her father, architect John Wicks, had an outsized impact on downtown Astoria. In 1922, a fire destroyed much of downtown, leading to a period of rapid rebuilding.

Goodenberger, who studied architecture and knew Wicks Brown and her husband in the later years of their lives, said that John Wicks “looked to the past for inspiration.” His designs incorporated Colonial Revival and Jacobethan elements while still “being very modern.”

But when Ebba Wicks Brown worked between the 1950s and 1970s, she “looked forward, not looking back,” Goodenberger said.

After receiving licensure, Wicks Brown joined her father’s firm. Together, they designed numerous buildings in downtown Astoria, including the Armory building, Cochran’s department store, and Zion Lutheran Church.

Each building utilizes geometric forms, little ornamentation, and other elements characteristic of International-style architecture –– a style encompassing Brutalism –– all the result of Wicks Brown’s influence.

Establishing her own firm after her father’s death, Wicks Brown was the principal architect for the library building, the Illahee Apartments, the Daily Astorian newspaper’s building, and the US Bank building.

Goodenberger remembered Wicks Brown as “a force of nature.”

“She was a woman of her period,” he said. “She certainly brought us into modern times with her architecture.”

Preserving a building’s history

How do you renovate a building made mostly from concrete? Hennebery Eddy discovered some features of Wicks Brown’s design that provided flexibility.

The exterior concrete walls are quintessential Brutalism. But the interior’s structure is supported by steel columns and trusses. “We didn’t have a bunch of concrete walls that would have been difficult to change,” Wark said. “In that sense, this building was easier than a true Brutalist building.”

Wark said “a real balance” is necessary to renovate a building and maintain its historic character, found by identifying a building’s defining features that reflect its architectural style.

The precast concrete panels of the library’s exterior walls are one, as well as a slight ornamentation in Wicks Browns’ design: eyebrow-like protrusions at the top of the library’s narrow, vertical windows.

In three places, the flat roof pops up in slight elevation, signifying the location of specific rooms inside the library. Prior to the renovation, those spaces were used as a meeting room, the children’s area, and the main reading room.

“You know the interior from the exterior,” Goodenberger said. “That is part of the elegance of the design.”

The way in which the exterior connects with and hints at the interior is, Wark said, “unique for its time.” The renovation will preserve the height of the roof and ceilings in those spaces.

One of the biggest changes to the library is the addition of two floor-to-ceiling windows on the library’s north side, where two concrete slabs once were. The design preserves the building’s historic character because the windows are the same size as the slabs. “That was very deliberate,” Wark said.

“There is an underlying rhythm that replicates the original,” Wark said. “You get a sense of how it was divided originally.”

Wicks Brown built in flexibility in her designs, Goodenberger said.

“She, I think, designed her buildings with the idea that they could be changed and renovated,” he said. “She was not afraid to renovate her own buildings. I think she looked at things very practically.”

Reflecting Astoria’s history and culture

A permanent exhibit on Wicks Brown, her architectural work, and legacy will be displayed near the Astoriana room. The exhibit will include photographs and documents, and possibly tools and other objects Wicks Brown used.

When the library reopens this fall, the building’s name will change from the “Astor Library Building” to “Logan Memorial Library Building.” Named after W.C. Logan, one of Astoria’s mayors during the mid-20^th century, the name change is required by the terms of the Logan Family Trust, a trust fund bequeathed from the family to the library.

Approximately $50,000 from a combined fund of four small trusts will pay for an “opening day collection,” Harold said, of new books, including literature, poetry, memoir, general nonfiction, and history.

The interior design will reflect the library’s original mid-century design, with Eames chairs and other mid-century furniture. 

Harold worked with various groups in Astoria, including the Chinook Nation, members of the Finnish and Scandinavian communities, and the Chinese community to incorporate design elements reflecting those cultures and their presence in Astoria.

The circulation desk will be designed to be reminiscent of a fishing boat. The wall behind the desk will be made of red cedar, a wood with cultural significance in the Chinook Nation and Nordic traditions. 

Rope and buoys will divide the entrance and circulation desk from the children’s area. A few walls are large enough for murals, which will be created by local artists.

The carpet will be predominantly green and blue, evocative of the ocean and Columbia River, with bits of yellow, orange, and red to evoke sunsets. 

When someone comes into the library to browse books, use a computer, conduct archival research or attend a story time, the hope is that they will think, Harold said, “This is Astoria.”