Event Will Now Take Place At Existing Rockville Library
County Executive Duncan, Rockville Mayor Giammo Among Scheduled Speakers at Ceremonies
ROCKVILLE, Md., Jan. 20, 2005—A construction kickoff ceremony for the new Rockville Regional Library, which will be one of the prime anchors of the Rockville Town Square project in the City’s redeveloped Town Center, will be held on Monday, Jan. 24, at 12 noon. The event’s location will be on the main floor of the existing Rockville Library located at 99 Maryland Avenue.
Montgomery County Executive Douglas Duncan and Rockville Mayor Larry Giammo will be among the speakers. The public is invited to the festivities.
The library, which will cost approximately $26.3 million, will be the largest in the Montgomery County system when completed. Montgomery County is taking pride in the many assets the library will hold for people with special needs.
The front of the library will face the public plaza of the mixed-use Rockville Town Square, which is the major portion of Phase I of the overall Rockville Town Center rejuvenation envisioned by Rockville’s Mayor and Council.
RD Rockville, LLC is the developer of the 12.5-acre Rockville Town Square project that will cost more than $350 million. It will incorporate the library and a public town plaza as part of a mix that also will include about 648 premiere residences; about 170,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space to be owned by Federal Realty Investment Trust; and three public and one private parking garage with about 1,900 spaces.
The library will be about 71,500 square feet, plus 12,700 square feet for library administration and another 14,700 square feet of office space for other county agencies. It will hold approximately 140,000 volumes from its present site on the corner of Maryland Avenue and Vinson Street. An additional 60,000 volumes will be purchased over a three-year period. There will be two large meeting rooms available for public use and 60 accessible computers.
“We are pleased that Montgomery County is joining to play an important role in our City’s new Town Center,” said Rockville Mayor Larry Giammo. “As mayor, I see the new Rockville Regional Library as one of the notable anchors of our future Town Center. As a father, I see it as a place that will help shape the future of my children.”
The new library is scheduled to open in summer 2006. Plans call for a new district court to be built on the site of the current library on the block surrounded by Maryland Route 28, Maryland Avenue and Vinson Street.
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