At a time when a piece of grass smaller than the ground floor of this building and a few thousand chairs cost over a billion dollars, this central library, free and open to all San Diegans, is being built for $185,000. And in 30 years, it won't be considered out of date, but just beginning to acquire the dignity of a patina. This phenomenal achievement is in part because of the dedicated efforts of the management team from the City of S.D., the design team ( my partner Art Castro and his Tucker Sadler crew), and the extraordinary talents of Turner construction and their subcontractors. (Carmon Vann). After 35 years of community effort, the planets truly aligned. • Mel and Judith rode in on their matching white horses reinforcing Katie Sullivan and decades of Board members who worked tirelessly to get this project off of the ground. • The devastating recession yielded an unexpected and significant construction savings window, • The state gave us yet one more last chance to spend the 20 M grant the library staff won, • Generous donors, led by the Jacops family, stepped forward, • and, most important of all, a savvy Mayor and insightful council recognized this once in a lifetime opportunity and ACTED. Despite the risks, Democrats and Republicans came together for our city when it counted and got closure. Generations of San Diegans will be grateful. Let me close with a few comments on the Dome. I love pointing out that the iconic idea of the Library Dome was not mine. It was the collective vision of hundreds of citizens who worked with us in a warehouse on the bay to determine what the library should be. The final structure built above you is the result of over a decade of design effort. We were fortunate in finding Paul Endres, an innovative and fearless young structural engineer and fortunate again that Turner had on their staff the brilliant Doug Wenk, It is one thing to envision and design a Dome like this, quite another to actually build it. There were no precedents, and the final result could easily have been a sad compromise. Thanks Doug, for all of your sleepless nights and creative problem solving. This Dome stands as an icon, a symbol of this City's commitment to literacy and community. Like the human spirits nurtured within, the Dome is designed to be in a perpetual act of becoming. It will never look "finished" or complete. It is intended to stand as a paradox, grand yet accessible, familiar yet unique, comforting and provocative. Permanent, yet always kinetic and ever changing as it engages the sun and clouds .
