Publisher Donates $20M for Norfolk Main Library
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 10/8/2008
- $20 million gift for $50 million project
- Current main library already scheduled to close
- Without gift, project might have taken a decade
The retired publisher of the local Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk has committed $20 million to help 
build a new $50 million central library complex for the Norfolk Public Library, projected to open in 2012. "Without this gift, it would have taken many, many years, at least a decade," Mayor Paul Fraim told the Virginian-Pilot.
The gift from Frank Batten Sr., the retired chairman of Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, will be used for the construction of a three-story building adjacent to the 1900 Seaboard Building, which was already slated to be the temporary downtown library after the current central facility, the 1962 Kirn Memorial Library, closes to make way for a planned Light Rail Transit system. Kirn is in “pitiful” shape, according to Roslyn G. Brown, chairwoman of the library board, who was elated by the announcement.
The new and old buildings, joined by an atrium, will become the Norfolk Main Library, named for Batten’s uncle, Col. Samuel L. Slover, who founded Landmark. "This is probably the most important public building that will be built in the city in my time," said Fraim. While the current building has 57,860 square feet, the new complex will have about 65,000 square feet
The city will maintain an annex building for storage and some offices, the newspaper stated. As explained by the library, the Kirn building (left) is scheduled to close in late November. The public services at Kirn will move to Seaboard, while the administrative offices and support services will move to the offsite annex, not open to the public. Less-used library materials will be relocated to a climate-controlled storage facility at the annex.
