Centering Communities in Equitable Library Design
Multnomah County Library
Innovation Synopsis
With voter approval of a $387 million Multnomah County Library (MCL) building bond in 2020, MCL had the opportunity to dream big for future spaces. But how could we be sure that these spaces are representative of the community when traditional design outreach focuses on dominant culture communities? The answer was to create and implement our own budget, processes and engagement ethos to ensure communities could give input at each step through the design process. By partnering with architects, community organizations and individuals to develop engagement strategies, as well as creating innovative paid community design programs, we’ve reached over 22,000 people and have extensive community feedback which has been synthesized and applied to eight new or totally rebuilt library locations, including a brand new destination library. And more than that, the library has developed stronger community relationships and designed new library spaces that truly represent the community.
Challenge/Opportunity
MCL is one of the busiest systems in the nation based on circulation, but has half the square footage of comparable library systems. Most libraries were built in the last century, are centered around books and are not flexible enough to stay responsive to changing community needs. In order to transform and expand library spaces, Multnomah County voters approved a capital bond measure in November 2020.
One of the goals of this transformation is to center historically underserved communities in shaping new library spaces, ensuring these spaces are welcoming and useful for the diverse communities in our county now and in the future. Community engagement is done intentionally and equitably to build trust with communities that may not have existing relationships with MCL or positive relationships with government institutions. These efforts also include reimagining a design and construction process that often does not include extensive, impactful community engagement.
Key Elements of Innovation
The bond team set a budget for community engagement on eight large projects and hired a community engagement strategist. The team also developed an equity-centered ethos to inform community engagement.
The team partnered with architects, staff and community on engagement from pre-design through library openings. Engagement methodology is intentionally varied and includes paid focus groups, tabling, community meetings, leave-behind materials, surveys, interviews, and innovative paid engagement programs like Community Design Advocates (CDAs). CDAs were paid community members who led culturally-appropriate design feedback sessions over the span of a year. CDAs received additional funds to compensate community members they engaged with. We also held paid youth design programs like the Youth Opportunity Design Approach (YODA), with three cohorts shaping new teen spaces. Materials were translated into five service languages and interpreters joined events for greater community access.
Achieved Outcomes
With intentional engagement, we reached over 22,000 people in under three years for 8 library projects and analyzed thousands of comments to inform design. We built relationships with communities and organizations who shared:
- “The library actually cares about us, the public. All my guests that I spoke to, they felt the same. They’ve never had an experience like this before.”-CDA
- “I love our libraries as they have been a huge part of my life so far. I'd love to be able to contribute to the development of them and help create spaces that will be meaningful and memorable.”-YODA
- “This time, I feel that the community was listened to and taken seriously.”-CDA
Example impacts on library design:
- Midland Library’s Gathering Circle, designed with insights from Indigenous communities, symbolizes and supports connection to our surroundings and others
- Albina Library’s community room and courtyard, guided by community desire for event space visible from the street and secure outdoor nature area
Additional Materials:
- Multnomah County Library seeks design input for eastside flagship, The Oregonian (File Version)
- Holgate and Midland libraries downloadable poster
- Additional photos: 1 | 2 | 3
