A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Henry Madden Library at California State University, Fresno will be held at noon Monday, Sept. 25.
 
President John D. Welty, Library Dean Michael Gorman and Associated Students President Juan Pablo Moncayo will make remarks at the northeast corner of the construction site, the area just behind the Free Speech platform. They will move inside the fence to turn the first shovels of dirt for the symbolic groundbreaking.

The ceremony is open to the campus and community.

When the $95 million building project is completed in fall 2008, the Madden Library will be the largest academic building (350,000 square feet) on campus. It also will become the largest library in the California State University’s 23-campus system. The project includes construction of an architecturally striking four-story, 283,600-square-foot building and the renovation of the existing 68,695-square-foot south library building, which dates to 1980. The two buildings will be connected.

The northern portion of the library that was constructed in 1956 and an addition that opened in 1965 are in the final stages of demolition so the new library can be erected in the same footprint.

The new library will include state-of-the-art information technology systems, 3,600 reader stations, room for new and expanded special collections, individual study carrels, group study rooms and office space for the library administration and Services for Students with Disabilities. The university administration will be housed on the fourth floor in the Harold H. Haak Administrative Center, named in memory of Dr. Haak, the university’s seventh president.

The project is financed with funds from the Proposition 55 bond measure approved by California voters in March 2004. Architects are A.C. Martin Partners Inc. in association with Hillier Architecture. Swinerton Builders is handling construction.

Information about the project and a live Webcam to watch construction work are available online at:
Henry Madden Library