Richardson's library started in 1947 as a small branch of the Dallas County Library, set up inside the Cash Dry Goods store on Main Street. It got its first building of its own on East Tyler Street in November 1959. The four-story concrete building at 421 W. Arapaho Rd. opened on Dec. 1, 1970. That building reopens at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21, after a renovation that kept the library in a temporary space on Campbell Creek Boulevard for three years.
The building is still recognizably the same, but it now faces a different way. The front door has moved and walls have been opened up, all toward a plaza and a City Hall that weren't part of the plan when the design work began. The renovated library is the first piece to reopen on a Municipal Campus that Richardson had to redraw after August 2022.
A Fire Rewrote the Campus Around the Library
Library improvements were funded by the 2021 Bond Program, which also set aside money for work on City Hall. In August 2022, an electrical fire did extensive damage to the old City Hall. Voters then approved the 2023 Bond Program to pay for a replacement. As a result, the library renovation was no longer a project on its own. It became the anchor of a rebuilt civic center.
The layout that came out of that process puts New City Hall northeast of the old one, on the other side of the Fountain Plaza from the library. The old City Hall site has become green space. According to the city, the public's priorities for the campus were keeping the existing Fountain Plaza, adding green space, improving pedestrian connections and creating more room for public gatherings. As Community Impact reported in 2023, the preferred concept also called for walking-trail improvements around the campus perimeter.
That's why the most visible exterior changes all point the same way. Here is what the design team, Steinberg Hart with Architexas, presented to City Council in September 2023, as recorded in the city's library renovation project log:
- The main entrance moves to the southeast corner, with a planned drop-off lane, giving easier access to the Fountain Plaza and a shorter walk from City Hall.
- Glass walls replace much of the concrete on the third floor's east façade, which faces the plaza, bringing in daylight and views of the fountain and New City Hall.
- The first and second floors get new glass that is clearer and more energy efficient.
- A glass-enclosed staircase is added on the south façade.
- A drive-up book drop is planned for the left side of the building.
The city's Oct. 30 reopening announcement describes the relocated entrance as "a new connection to the Municipal Campus Fountain Plaza." The building was designed in a Brutalist style, which means heavy concrete and a closed-off look. The renovation keeps that character while opening the side that faces the new civic center.
Where Each Piece of the Campus Stands Heading Into Nov. 21
| Campus piece | Status per the city's fall 2026 updates |
|---|---|
| Richardson Public Library, 421 W. Arapaho Rd. | Grand reopening Saturday, Nov. 21, 1 p.m.; some finishing work continues into 2027 |
| New City Hall | Under construction across the Fountain Plaza; final structural beam placed December 2025; move-in targeted for early 2027 |
| Former City Hall site | Converted to green space |
| Fountain Plaza | Kept as the center of the campus, between the library and New City Hall |
| Temporary library, 2360 Campbell Creek Blvd. | Closed Oct. 11; until Nov. 21, the library offers digital services only |
The city's December 2025 topping-off release describes New City Hall as a building of about 98,500 square feet, and its New City Hall page targets move-in for early 2027. For the next few months, then, the library is the only open building on a campus that is still under construction, and the city says crews will keep working on New City Hall and the surrounding site after the library opens.
What the Extra 6,000 Square Feet Holds
Redesigned floor plans across all four levels add about 6,000 square feet of usable space. Most of that space went to young readers. At an August meeting of the Public Library Board, youth services supervisor Shay Brooks described the change this way, as quoted by Community Impact:
"Youth services is growing up, literally."
Here is the layout, based on that coverage and the city's release:
- Main level: Services for babies, toddlers and preschoolers, roughly where the old children's area was, with new bins holding thousands of books for the youngest readers.
- Level two: A collection and activity area for ages 6 to 12, close to a laptop kiosk, a beanbag pit and a wall-size Scrabble board.
- Teen area: Built for ages 13 to 18, with two dedicated study rooms, TV monitors that connect to laptops, whiteboards and a mix of seating.
- New program rooms: A large event space, a test kitchen and a makerspace, used for adult, teen and children's programs.
- Local history: An expanded section for Richardson's own records.
The test kitchen and the event space follow the same idea as the plaza-facing entrance. Both are built for gatherings and programs, the kind of use residents asked for when the city surveyed them and held public meetings in 2022.
The Art Connects to Earlier Events at the Fountain
A selection panel chose two new public artworks from more than 200 artist applications. The panel included library staff and members of the Cultural Arts Commission, the Library Advisory Board and the library's youth board.
"Lighter Than Air," by the artists of SOFTlab, hangs over the children's area. It is a group of colorful "floating" clusters made of rounded, hatched, intersecting planes of powder-coated aluminum, and the city says they resemble bubbles, clouds or butterflies, depending on who's looking.
The outdoor piece connects back to earlier events at the fountain. "Enchanted Silicon Prairie," by Dallas-based Brad Oldham Sculpture, features oversized Texas wildflowers, a stack of books and a 20-inch, mirror-polished stainless-steel version of Oldham's BIRD character. Other versions of BIRD were installed on loan near the fountain during arts celebrations in 2015 and 2016, including the Ricochet art event, and the project log says the panel liked the continuity between the old pieces and the new one. The same studio made the "Traveling Man" sculptures in Deep Ellum. The city said the new sculpture would be installed before the grand reopening.
Three Years at Campbell Creek
The temporary location was never supposed to last this long. In September 2023, the city expected construction to start in early 2024 and finish by the end of 2025. A February 2024 update moved the expected completion to January 2026, and a July 2024 update still said late 2025. The move back started in fall 2026 instead. The space at 2360 Campbell Creek Blvd., about 29,000 square feet of leased space, closed at the end of the day on Oct. 11 so staff could move the collection, equipment and services back to Arapaho Road.
The planning-stage budget gives a sense of the scale. As of the February 2024 council update, the renovation's total original budget was $48.1 million, with $36.1 million from the 2021 Bond Program and $12 million in certificates of obligation the council approved in January 2023. At that meeting, staff recommended a guaranteed maximum price of $31.4 million, which Balfour Beatty Construction developed as construction manager at risk after bidding the work to subcontractors in December 2023. Those numbers come from early 2024, before construction started, and are not a final cost.
What Happens on Nov. 21
The grand reopening starts at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21. The city has scheduled performances by local arts groups, arts and crafts, a scavenger hunt, demonstrations of the makerspace equipment and the debut of two new library card designs.
If you're going, plan to use the southeast entrance on the Fountain Plaza side, since that's where the main door is now. The 2023 design placed a drop-off lane beside it. New City Hall will still be under construction across the plaza, and some finishing work on the library will continue into 2027. The Richardson Public Library page is the place to check regular hours and makerspace details as the building settles into its normal schedule.
The library first opened in 1970 when Richardson had a very different civic center. This is the first time since then that it has been renovated to work with what surrounds it, and on Nov. 21 it becomes the first building on the new Municipal Campus to open its doors.
At Lardner Group, we pay close attention to projects like this one, where a city's investment in a public building changes how the blocks around it work. If you own property near Richardson's Municipal Campus or are weighing a project close to it, schedule a consultation and we'll walk through what the finished campus could mean for your plans.
